SPAIN    AND   MOROCCO 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR 

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SPAIN  AND  MOROCCO 


STUDIES  IN  LOCAL   COLOR 


BY 


HENEY   T.    FINOK 


NEW  YORK 
CHARLES    SCRIBNER'S    SONS 

1891 


COPYRIGHT,  1891,  BY 
CHAELES   SCRIBNER'S  SONS 


TROWS 

PRINTING  AND  BOOKBINDING  COMPANY, 
NEW  YORK. 


Co 

MISS   BESSIE  A.  -CUSHMAN 


261233 


PEEFAOE 


Is  a  tourist  justified  in  writing  a  book  on  two 
vast  countries  like  Spain  and  Morocco,  after  a  flying 
visit  of  barely  two  months?  That  depends  obvi- 
ously on  his  aim  and  his  method.  If  he  ventures  to 
write  about  their  political  and  social  institutions 
after  so  brief  an  acquaintance,  he  doubtless  deserves 
censure  for  presumption  and  hasty  generalization. 
But  if  his  aim  is  merely  an  attempt  to  transfer  to 
the  pages  of  a  book  an  impression  of  some  of  the 
most  striking  samples  of  local  color  he  came  across, 
then  he  is  actually  better  qualified,  and  more  in  the 
mood,  for  doing  his  work  properly  after  a  visit  of 
two  months  than  after  a  sojourn  of  two  years  ;  for 
what  is  most  novel,  characteristic,  and  romantic  in 
a  foreign  country  strikes  us  most  vividly  at  the  be- 
ginning, and  gradually  loses  its  fascination  as  daily 
repetition  makes  it  seem  normal. 


viii  PREFACE 

It  is  for  this  reason  that  the  most  vivid  descrip- 
tions of  Spain — as  of  other  countries — have  been 
written  by  authors  foreign  to  the  soil :  the  French 
Gautier,  the  Italian  De  Amicis,  the  English  Ford, 
the  American  Irving  ;  while  for  the  inner  life  of  the 
people  we  must  go  to  the  literary  mirror  of  the  nov- 
elists and  dramatists.  By  combining  these  inter- 
national sources  of  information  one  can  get  a  toler- 
ably good  idea  of  a  foreign  land  without  leaving  his 
easy-chair  before  his  grate  ;  and  some  are  so  fond 
of  personal  comfort  that  they  prefer  this  method  of 
travelling  to  the  real  thing,  with  its  various  annoy- 
ances, exposures,  and  privations.  We  Americans, 
however,  have  inherited  so  strong  a  travelling  ten- 
dency from  our  ancestors,  who  were  those  of  the 
Europeans  in  whom  the  migratory  instinct  was 
most  powerfully  developed,  that  we  are  rarely  con- 
tented with  merely  imaginary  travels  in  an  eas}r- 
chair,  but  long  to  see  everything  with  our  own  eyes. 
And  when  we  have  seen  it,  we  are  led  by  another 
irresistible  impulse  to  write  about  it — to  our  friends, 
to  the  newspapers,  to  the  book  publishers — in  order 
to  convince  others  that  it  really  is  more  interesting 
to  take  part  in  a  banquet  than  to  read  the  menu  in 
the  morning  papers. 


PREFACE  IX 

This  impulse  is  my  chief  excuse  for  offering  the 
public  another  book  on  a  part  of  the  globe  that  has 
been  so  much  written  about.  And,  after  all,  Spain 
and  Morocco  have  not  been  nearly  as  much  overrun 
by  literary  and  other  tourists  as  Italy  and  the  East- 
ern parts  of  the  North  African  coast,  and  there  is, 
therefore,  more  unadulterated  local  color  left  in 
them.  In  Spanish  cities  the  natives  have  not  yet 
got  to  the  point  of  posing  all  the  time  for  tourists, 
and  spreading  their  nets  to  catch  their  money  ;  and 
in  Morocco,  the  only  city  in  which  tourist  influ- 
ences are  at  all  perceptible  is  Tangier.  Tetuan,  to 
which  I  have  devoted  a  chapter,  is  not  even  de- 
scribed in  the  entertaining  books  on  Morocco  by 
Pierre  Loti  and  De  Amicis  ;  and  reviewers  or  others 
who  lack  time  to  read  the  whole  of  my  book  will 
find  this  chapter,  and  the  one  entitled  "A  Romantic 
Episode,"  the  freshest  part  of  the  territory  covered 
by  me.  Those  who  wish  to  follow  me  in  this  last 
chapter  will  do  well  to  procure  a  copy  of  Borrow's 
entertaining  book  on  the  "  Gypsies  of  Spain." 

Travellers  need  not  fear  that  because  Spain  still 
remains  out  of  the  beaten  track  of  globe-trotters 
therefore  they  will  suffer  from  lack  of  accommoda- 
tions and  an  excess  of  "  local  flavor  "  in  the  cookery. 


X  PREFACE 

Good  "  Swiss  "  hotels  are  now  to  be  found  at  all  the 
larger  places,  the  railroads  are  at  least  as  good  as 
those  of  Italy,  there  is  no  more  danger  from  brigands 
than  in  that  country,  and  the  beggars  are  rather 
less  than  more  importunate,  being  partly  restrained 
by  Castilian  dignity  and  partly  by  the  fact  that  they 
look  on  their  business  as  a  fine  art,  less  dishonora- 
ble than  work.  The  best  time  to  visit  Spain  is  in 
the  spring  and  autumn  months. 

H.  T.  F. 
NEW  YOKE,  March  31,  1891. 


CONTENTS 


I. 

FROM  PARIS  TO  MADRID. 

PAGE 

Scenes  at  Bordeaux. — Foreign  Influences. — Beer  ver- 
sus Wine. — A  Chamber  of  Horrors. — In  the  Pyrenees.— 
Musical  Tunnels. — Don  Quixote.— Primitive  Agricult- 
ure.— A  Day  in  Burgos. — Beggars  and  Peasants 1 


n. 

COSMOPOLITAN  MADRID. 

Where  "American  "  means  South  American. — English 
and  French  Influences.— The  Heart  of  the  City. — Mule 
Cars.— Climate  and  Scenery.— Spanish  Cafe's  and  Hotels. 
— Breakfast  and  Dinner. — Free  Wine  and  Temperance. 
—Turning  Night  into  Day.— The  Promenade.— A  Folk 
Festival.— Cowardly  Bull-Fights 


Xll  CONTENTS 

III. 

Two  SKELETON  CITIES. 

PAOE 

The  Round  Trip.— A  Toledo  Boarding  House.— Nar- 
row Streets.— A  Deserted  Cathedral. — Stronghold  of  the 
Priests. — A  Country  Railway  Station. — A  Proud  Beg- 
gar.—Popularity  of  Bull  -  Fighters. — Cordova  and  its 
Mosque.  — The  Marble  Forest. — Moorish  Relics. — Water 
Carriers..  ,  27 


IV. 

LOCAL  COLOR  IN  SEVILLE. 

Moorish  and  Christian  Architecture. — Ascending  the 
Giralda. — Cafes  and  Awning  -  covered  Streets. — Street 
Cars  a  Novelty. — A  Funeral  Procession. — A  Remarkable 
Post  Office.  —  Historic  Contrasts.  —  Moorish  Patios.  — 
Beauties  of  the  Alcazar. — Noisy  Serenos. — A  Ballet  in 
the  Cathedral. — Musical  Students  of  Salamanca 41 


V. 

SHERRYLAND  AND  CADIZ. 

The  "Great  River." — Grazing  Bulls. — Shade  a  Lux- 
ury.— Cactus  Fences. — A  Cordial  Welcome. — Miles  of 


CONTENTS  Xlll 

PAGE 

Sherry  Barrels. — Spanish  Wine  and  German  Alcohol. — 
In  the  Marshes.— Pyramids  of  Salt.— The  Spanish  Ven- 
ice.—  Seven  Miles  at  Sea. — White  and  Blue. — Poor 
Food. — Smugglers  and  Plundering  Officials. — The  Span- 
ish Character. .,  ,  58 


VI. 

THE  " INFIDEL  CITY"  OP  MOROCCO.  v 

The  China  of  the  West.— Sights  in  Tangier.— The 
Moorish  Quarter. — The  Market  Place. — Lepers  in  the 
Streets. — A  Snake  Charmer. — Coy  Women. — Jewesses. 
— Arabic  Money. — The  Prison  and  the  Judge. — A  Moor- 
ish Cafe.— Native  Dancing  Girls 75 


VII. 

ON  HORSEBACK  TO  TETUATT.  * 

Getting  a  Soldier. — Canaries  and  Flowers. — A  Unique 
Inn. — A  Mohammedan  Rooster. — African  Donkeys. — 
The  Jewish  Quarter. — Why  the  Jews  Emigrate  to  Amer- 
ica.— Oriental  Scenes. — African  Tea  and  Coffee. — Ne- 
groes and  Riffians 99 


XIV  CONTENTS 

vm. 

GIBRALTAR  AND  MALAGA. 

PAGE 

Back  to  Spain.— England  in  Spain. — A  Protean  Rock. 
— The  Fortifications.— The  Monkeys  of  Gibraltar. — Con- 
victs and  Soldiers. — Across  the  Border  Line.— Climate 
and  Scenery  of  Malaga. — Crime  and  Poverty.— Malaga 
Wine  and  Raisins 123 

IX. 

GRANADA  AND  THE  ALHAMBRA. 

From  Malaga  to  Granada. — An  Andalusian  Summer 
Resort. — English  Trees  in  Spain. — The  Alhambra  To- 
day.— Vandals  and  Visitors. — The  Court  of  Lions. — Sun- 
set in  the  Sierra  Nevada. — Andalusian  Funerals. — The 
Truth  Concerning  Beggars. — Gypsy  Caves 137 

X. 

A  ROMANTIC  EPISODE. 

A  Stage  Ride.— Off  the  Beaten  Track.— Third-Class 
Best.— The  Mules  and  the  Priest. — A  Suspicious  Tavern. 
— Saved  by  a  Lie. — A  Spanish  Thunderstorm. — Fantas- 
tic Mud  Architecture. — Gypsy  Cave  Dwellings. — Garlic 
and  Raw  Ham. — Murcia. — Street  Music  and  Dancing. . .  157 


CONTENTS  XV 

XI. 

MEDITERRANEAN  SPAIN. 

PAGE 

Palm  Groves  and  Vineyards. — Where  "French." 
Wines  are  Raised. — Alicante  and  Valencia  Compared 
with  Andalusian  Cities.  —  Ludicrous  Tartanas.  —  Old 
Roman  Ruins. — Barcelona. — Local  Pride  versus  Patriot- 
ism.— Montserrat. — A  Magnificent  Mountain  View 169 


SPAIN  AKD  MOEOOOO 


FROM  PARIS  TO  MADRID 

Scenes  at  Bordeaux. —  Foreign  Influences.— Beer  versus 
Wine. — A  Chamber  of  Horrors. —  In  the  Pyrenees. — 
Musical  Tunnels. — Don  Quixote.— Primitive  Agricult- 
ure.— A  Day  in  Burgos. — Beggars  and  Peasants. 

IN  going  from  New  York  to  Spain  one  can  plunge 
at  once  in  medias  res  by  taking  one  of  the  Mediter- 
ranean lines  of  steamers  which  call  at  Gibraltar  on 
their  way  to  Italy.  But  the  Horatian  maxim  is  not 
a  good  one  for  travellers  to  follow.  No  expert  tour- 
ist would  care  to  be  placed  abruptly  on  the  top  of 
Mont  Blanc  and  then  walk  down,  because  what 
would  have  been,  on  going  up,  an  endless  series  of 
picturesque  surprises,  gradually  leading  to  a  climax 
of  sublimity,  must,  on  going  down,  prove  so  many 
disappointing  degrees  of  an  anti-climax.  Similarly, 
in  making  a  tour  of  Spain,  it  would  be  foolish  to  be- 
gin with  Seville  and  Granada,  instead  of  approach- 
ing these  centres  of  local  color  from  the  north,  by 


2'  '  "SPAIN  AND  MOROCCO 

way  of  the  semi-Spanish  Bordeaux  and  the  semi- 
French  Madrid.  And  there  is  another  cogent  reason 
for  taking  this  northern  course ;  it  enables  one  to 
cross  the  ocean  on  one  of  the  new  and  comfortable 
English,  German,  or  French  steamers.  It  is  not  so 
much  the  superior  speed  and  safety  of  these  new 
steamers  that  speak  in  their  favor  as  the  superior 
arrangements  for  ventilation.  Going  this  way,  more- 
over, tourists  who  have  never  been  abroad  will  have 
the  advantage  of  seeing  something  of  England  and 
France  en  route,  which  will  enable  them  to  form  a 
better  estimate  of  the  present  state  of  civilization  in 
Spain  by  making  interesting  comparisons ;  and  from 
this  point  of  view  comparisons  are  not  odious. 

As  the  subject  of  this  book  is  Spain,  we  may  pass 
over  London  and  Paris  in  silence,  and  at  once  take 
the  express  train  for  Madrid  via  Bordeaux.  On  the 
way  from  Paris  to  Bordeaux  there  is  very  little  to 
see,  except  an  abundance  of  gardens  and  fields,  and 
peasants  busy  in  them,  and  herds  of  sheep,  and 
women  doing  their  washing  in  the  creeks,  and  oc- 
casional groups  of  trees  remarkable  for  their  abun- 
dant supply  of  the  parasitic  mistletoe.  Bordeaux, 
like  most  French  cities,  resembles  a  copy  of  Paris 
made  by  a  second  -  rate  artist.  The  surroundings 
are  uninteresting,  and  it  must  be  a  tiresome  place 
to  live  in. 

Theophile    Gautier  remarks    that    at    Bordeaux 


FROM  PARIS   TO   MADRID  3 

Spanish  influences  begin  to  assert  themselves,  and 
he  states  that  most  of  the  street  signs  are  in  two 
languages.  This  may  have  been  true  fifty  years 
ago,  when  he  wrote  his  book  on  Spain,  but  to-day 
one  sees  few  Spanish  signs.  Possibly  the  railroad 
has  changed  this  by  bringing  nearer  the  influence 
of  Paris  to  neutralize  that  of  the  Spanish  boundary. 
But  the  women  of  Bordeaux  perhaps  do  indicate 
the  presence  of  Spanish  blood.  They  are  not  only 
prettier  but  more  graceful  than  the  Parisiennes. 
And  there  is  another  kind  of  foreign  influence  vis- 
ible in  Bordeaux,  which  ought  to  arouse  the  indig- 
nation of  the  chauvinists.  Nothing  strikes  one  more 
in  the  cafes  of  Paris  than  the  yearly  increasing  num- 
ber of  beer-drinkers.  In  Bordeaux,  the  home  of 
French  claret,  this  phenomenon  appears  still  more 
incongruous.  Of  every  five  men  I  saw,  four  were 
drinking  beer.  Perhaps  they  have  discovered  that 
ordinarily  there  is  more  honesty  in  a  glass  of  Ger- 
man beer  than  in  a  barrel  of  French  wine.  Yet  the 
Bordeaux  I  drank  at  the  hotel  was  both  cheap  and 
good. 

Bordeaux  has  at  present  221,000  inhabitants.  Its 
port  admits  vessels  of  2,500  tons,  and  has  room  for 
190  of  them.  The  city  has  a  fair  picture  gallery,  a 
library  of  170,000  volumes,  and  an  old  opera-house 
which  is  considered  the  largest  and  best  in  the 
country  outside  of  Paris.  But  there  was  no  per- 


4  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

formance  on  the  evening  when  I  was  there.  Per- 
haps the  greatest  curiosity  is  the  tower  beside  the 
Church  of  St.  Michel,  with  twenty-two  bells  near 
the  top.  There  is  nothing  strange  about  this  end 
of  the  tower  or  the  bells,  but  the  other  end  of  it 
contains  a  chamber  of  horrors  which  is  absolutely 
unique.  After  receiving  half  a  franc,  a  young  woman 
takes  a  lantern  attached  to  the  end  of  a  long  stick, 
and  precedes  the  visitor  down  a  flight  of  stairs. 
Here,  below  the  tower,  is  a  circular  chamber,  along 
the  wall  of  which  are  placed,  in  an  upright  position, 
about  thirty  or  forty  mummies — men,  women,  and 
children.  They  are  not  artificial  mummies  like  those 
found  in  Egypt,  but  natural  mummies,  the  soil  be- 
neath this  tower  having  once  possessed  the  mysteri- 
ous chemical  property  (which  it  has  now  lost)  of 
preserving  human  bodies  in  a  state  resembling 
leather.  There  they  stand,  exactly  as  Gautier  de- 
scribed them  half  a  century  ago,  with  a  gruesome 
realism  worthy  of  Zola — the  general  killed  in  a  duel, 
the  woman  who  died  of  cancer,  the  negro  woman, 
the  baby  who  looks  like  a  rubber  doll,  the  boy  whose 
clenched  fists  and  agonized  expression  indicate  that 
he  was  buried  alive,  etc.  The  young  woman  de- 
scribed these  mummies  and  touched  them  with  her 
stick  and  her  hand  as  if  they  were  so  many  alligator 
skins  on  exhibition. 
As  Bordeaux  is  not  exactly  a  cool  place  in  the 


FROM    PARIS   TO    MADRID  5 

middle  of  May,  I  was  glad  to  get  away  and  start  for 
the  Pyrenees.  I  expected  that  it  would  be  cooler 
in  the  mountains,  but  was  hardly  prepared  to  find 
snow  still  lingering  on  some  of  the  summits.  The 
scenery  in  some  places  is  grand,  in  others  delight- 
fully picturesque,  but  not  sufficiently  so  to  tempt 
the  tourist  to  come  and  see  it  for  its  own  sake.  The 
road  is  a  well-built  one,  and  the  engineers  had  many 
unusual  difficulties  to  overcome.  A  peculiar  prop- 
erty of  many  of  the  numerous  tunnels  is  that  while 
the  train  passes  through  them  they  become  musical 
instruments,  emitting  a  deep,  hollow  sound  like  that 
produced  by  blowing  into  a  large  empty  bottle. 
At  Irun,  the  first  Spanish  station,  cars  have  to  be 
changed,  the  Spanish  rails  being  of  a  different  gauge 
from  the  French — in  order,  it  is  supposed,  to  pre- 
vent any  sudden  invasion  from  France  in  case  of 
war.  Fontarabia,  San  Sebastian,  and  other  inter- 
vening stations  are  passed,  where  one  would  like  to 
linger  for  a  few  hours,  but  cannot  unless  he  has  un- 
limited time,  as  there  is  but  a  single  train  a  day. 
Some  amusement  is  afforded  by  observing,  from  the 
car-windows,  the  customs  of  the  Spanish  mountain 
peasants.  Agriculture  is  still  in  that  primitive  con- 
dition in  which  women  and  cows  are  used  as  beasts 
of  burden.  I  saw  in  one  field  a  man  pulling  along 
a  harrow,  while  two  women  held  it  down. 

We  were  now  in  the   country  of  the  Basques, 


6  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

•whose  language  is  so  unique  and  BO  difficult  that, 
according  to  the  legend,  the  devil  gave  it  up  in 
despair,  having  succeeded  in  mastering  only  three 
words  in  two  years.  I  have  since,  however,  met  an 
English  wine-merchant  who  says  he  can  speak  the 
Basque  tolerably  well,  and  that  he  does  not  consider 
it  so  difficult  as  Welsh.  I  had  no  opportunity  to 
hear  it  spoken,  as  the  only  native  in  my  coupe  was 
a  very  intelligent  and  courteous  Castilian,  who  gave 
me  and  a  Frenchman  a  free  lesson  in  Spanish,  and 
much  useful  information.  When  I  told  him  I  had 
read  "Don  Quixote"  twice,  I  could  see  how  I  rose 
in  his  estimation.  He  and  the  other  Spaniards,  he 
said,  read  it  all  the  time  ;  and  then,  as  if  to  show 
how  much  modern  Spaniards  have  improved  over 
their  ancestors  in  their  appreciation  of  good  litera- 
ture, he  dwelt  with  much  emphasis  on  the  fact  that, 
although  now  his  books  are  read  in  every  country, 
Cervantes  was  a  poor  man — emphasizing  the  pobre 
by  striking  his  pocket  repeatedly. 

Burgos,  the  first  Spanish  city  in  the  north  which 
no  tourist  can  afford  to  miss,  is,  like  most  of  these 
cities,  reached  at  night.  In  the  morning  I  was 
waked  by  a  military  band  and  procession  passing 
beneath  my  window.  The  soldiers  were  dressed  in 
loose  red  trousers  and  long  blue  coats.  The  band 
consisted  of  a  dozen  trumpeters,  followed  by  a  reg- 
ular brass  band.  The  trumpeters  first  played  alone, 


FROM   PAEIS   TO   MAD  KID  7 

whereupon  the  band  took  up  the  strain,  and  finally 
they  all  united,  which  produced  an  excellent  effect. 
I  had  read  so  much  about  Spanish  beggars  that  when 
I  went  out  into  the  street  I  expected  to  be  imme- 
diately surrounded  by  a  dozen  of  them  ;  but,  to  my 
surprise,  I  was  not  accosted  half-a-dozen  times  during 
the  whole  day.  I  took  a  guide  to  show  me  the  sights 
of  the  town,  including  the  Cathedral,  the  ruins  of 
the  Cid's  house,  his  bones,  and  other  relics.  On 
discharging  him  at  lunch  time  I  gave  him  three 
pesetas  (sixty  cents),  expecting  him  to  remonstrate 
and  demand  at  least  twice  as  much.  But  he  was 
most  profuse  in  his  thanks,  and  appeared  to  be  so 
impressed  by  my  extravagant  generosity  that  when 
he  casually  met  me  in  the  afternoon,  he  actually  of- 
fered to  devote  a  few  more  hours  to  me  without 
extra  charge.  Obviously,  Burgos  was  destined  to 
overthrow  all  my  preconceived  notions  regarding 
Spain. 

The  lion  of  Burgos  is,  of  course,  the  Cathedral, 
which  differs  from  most  Gothic  cathedrals  in  having 
been  actually  finished,  and  differs,  moreover,  from 
other  Spanish  cathedrals  in  being  more  impressive 
from  without  than  from  within,  although  its  effect 
would  be  immensely  heightened  if  it  stood  on  the 
top  instead  of  at  the  bottom  of  the  hill.  The  charm 
of  the  interior  lies  less  in  the  architectural  features 
than  in  the  great  profusion  of  marvellous  sculptured 


8  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

ornaments,  executed  with  extraordinary  finish. 
Many  of  the  houses  in  the  city  are  painted,  and  in 
such  gaudy  colors  that  De  Amicis  exclaims,  with 
pardonable  exaggeration  :  "  If  there  were  an  insane 
asylum  for  painters  at  Burgos,  one  would  say  that 
the  city  had  been  painted  some  day  when  its  inmates 
had  escaped/*  But  these  lively  colors  do  not  con- 
ceal the  fact  that  Burgos  is  a  dead  city,  whose  great- 
ness lies  in  the  memories  of  the  past.  There  did 
not  appear  to  be  enough  people  to  fill  the  houses 
and  the  streets,  although  the  day  I  spent  there  was 
a  holiday,  when  many  peasants  in  picturesque  cos- 
tume visited  the  city.  From  the  way  they  stared  at 
me,  I  concluded  that  a  stranger  in  those  parts  is 
indeed  a  stranger. 


II 

COSMOPOLITAN  MADRID 

Where  "American"  means  South  American. —English  and 
French  Influences. — The  Heart  of  the  City. — Mule  Cars. 
— Climate  and  Scenery. — Spanish  Cafe's  and  Hotels. — 
Breakfast  and  Dinner. — Free  Wine  and  Temperance. — 
Turning  Night  into  Day. — The  Promenade.— A  Folk 
Festival. —Cowardly  Bull-Fights. 

SPAIN  ought  to  be  the  favorite  resort  of  those  An- 
glomaniacs  who  turn  up  the  ends  of  their  trous- 
ers in  New  York  or  Boston  when  it  rains  in  London. 
In  Spain  they  would  be  inevitably  taken  for  English- 
men even  if  they  did  not  ape  the  latest  London 
fads ;  for  the  Spaniard  makes  no  distinction  be- 
tween Englishmen  and  North  Americans,  but  labels 
them  indiscriminately  as  "  Ingleses."  "  American  " 
here  means  South  American,  and  if  you  tell  the 
natives  you  are  an  American,  they  are  apt  to  ex- 
press surprise  that  you  do  not  speak  Spanish  as 
fluently  as  they  do.  This  misunderstanding  seems 
to  extend  even  to  South  Americans  who  visit  the 
"  old  country,"  and  who  not  infrequently  apply  to 
the  "  American  "  Ministry  in  Madrid  for  assistance 
or  advice.  In  view  of  the  close  relations  between 


10  SPAIN  AND  MOROCCO 

Spain  and  South  America,  all  this  seems  natural 
enough ;  but  it  is  not  flattering  to  one's  national  van- 
ity to  be  thus  unceremoniously  sponged  out  of  ex- 
istence. What  is  particularly  aggravating  is  to  find 
a  number  of  American  inventions  utilized  in  Spain 
and  invariably  placed  to  the  credit  of  the  "  Ingleses." 
I  was  annoyed  to  find  that  street- cars  are  supposed 
to  be  an  English  invention  ;  but  my  indignation 
rose  to  fever  heat  when  I  entered  a  place  marked 
"English  Drinks  "  and  found  a  genuine  American 
soda-water  fountain,  an  article  positively  unknown 
in  England ! 

The  word  "  Ingleses  "  meets  the  eye  at  every  cor- 
ner in  modern  Madrid.  There  are  for  sale  English 
hats,  English  cravats,  English  biscuits,  English  can- 
dles .and  matches,  etc.  One  also  comes  across  Ger- 
man goods  occasionally — a  lithographic  establish- 
ment, or  a  Wagner  opera  in  the  window  of  a  music 
store  by  the  side  of  "Carmen;"  but  the  English 
predominates,  even  over  the  French,  which  has 
always  hitherto  made  its  influence  felt  in  Madrid. 
In  fact  the  Spanish  capital  has  never  been  a  thor- 
oughly Spanish  city.  Though  known  to  history  al- 
most a  thousand  years,  it  remained  a  mere  village 
until  Charles  V.  made  it  his  occasional  residence, 
and  Philip  IL,  in  1560,  his  capital ;  and  even  then 
it  did  not  grow  with  special  rapidity,  for  of  its 
500,000  inhabitants,  300,000  have  been  added  with- 


COSMOPOLITAN   MADRID  11 

in  the  last  thirty  years — consequently  a  large  part 
of  the  city  has  an  essentially  modern  aspect,  re- 
sembling other  European  cities.  This  is  especially 
true  of  the  heart  of  the  city,  the  square  known  as 
the  Puerta  del  Sol,  where  ten  streets  and  all  the 
tramway  lines  meet,  and  whence  they  diverge  in 
different  directions,  like  so  many  arteries.  By  tak- 
ing each  of  these  tramway  lines  in  succession  one 
can  get  in  a  few  hours  a  general  impression  of  the 
city,  at  a  most  insignificant  expense,  for  the  fare  is 
only  two  cents.  The  cars  are  moved  by  mules  who 
are  always  urged  to  run,  even  up  hill  ;  but  in  steep 
places  an  extra  mule  is  attached.  These  tramways 
pass  through  some  streets  that  are  tortuous  and 
narrow  enough  to  remind  one  of  southern  Spain ; 
but  as  a  rule  the  streets  are  wider  than  in  the  south- 
ern cities,  and  the  houses  higher,  since  there  are  no 
earthquakes  to  guard  against  in  this  part  of  Spain. 
The  streets  are  very  badly  and  roughly  paved,  and 
therefore  exceedingly  noisy,  but  otherwise  they  are 
kept  in  excellent  condition,  free  from  dust  and  filth ; 
the  inhabitants  having  learned  a  lesson  or  two  in  hy- 
giene since  the  days  of  Charles  III,  whose  efforts  to 
clean  the  streets  were  opposed  on  sanitary  grounds  ! 
An  inestimable  boon  to  the  city  from  this  point 
of  view  is  its  abundant  supply  of  water,  with  which 
the  streets  are  sprinkled  with  hose  at  intervals  suf- 
ficiently frequent  to  lay  the  dust.  This  water  is 


12  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

brought  to  the  city  from  the  Guadarrama  Moun- 
tains, a  distance  of  thirty-two  miles,  by  means  of  an 
aqueduct  which  cost  nearly  $25,000,000.  The  in- 
troduction of  this  water  deprived  Madrid  of  one  of 
its  most  picturesque  features,  the  water-carriers ; 
but  it  gave  it  instead  not  only  cool  and  clean  streets, 
but  gardens  and  parks  and  good  drinking-water. 

Three  hundred  years  ago,  we  read,  Madrid  lay  in 
the  midst  of  dense  forests,  in  which  kings  hunted 
boars  and  bears.  Subsequently  these  trees  were  cut 
down,  so  that  to-day  the  same  regions  are  bleak  and 
barren  as  a  desert.  But  since  the  building  of  the  new 
water-works,  green  oases  of  groves  have  sprung  up 
again,  and  these,  it  is  said,  are  already  beginning 
to  modify  the  climate,  so  that  it  is  probable  that  if 
the  present  policy  is  continued,  irrigation  may  re- 
store to  Madrid  its  former  pleasant  climate,  instead 
of  its  present  one,  which  is  described  as  consisting  of 
nine  months'  winter  and  three  months'  hell.  Shade 
is  the  one  thing  Madrid  needs,  and  if  this  were  sup- 
plied, its  trying  and  sudden  changes  of  temperat- 
ure would  not  be  so  great.  The  neighborhood  of 
a  range  of  mountains  which  even  in  summer  are 
crowned  with  snow,  renders  the  winter  exceedingly 
cold,  all  the  more  since  Madrid  itself  lies  at  an  ele- 
vation of  almost  two  thousand  five  hundred  feet 
above  the  sea.  But  from  an  aesthetic  point  of  view 
these  mountains  constitute  one  of  the  greatest 


COSMOPOLITAN  MADRID  13 

charms  of  the  Spanish  capital.  In  walking  along 
the  superheated  streets  of  Madrid,  nothing  could 
be  more  delightful  than  the  occasional  glimpses  one 
gets  of  these  snowy  summits,  which  make  the  tour- 
ist fancy  himself  in  Innsbruck  or  Interlaken,  instead 
of  in  sunny  Spain.  Altogether,  I  think  the  sur- 
roundings of  Madrid  have  been  too  much  depreci- 
ated by  tourists  and  guide-book  makers.  From  the 
neighborhood  of  the  chapel  of  San  Isidro,  across 
the  river,  one  overlooks  a  wide  expanse  of  dreary 
but  sublime  plains,  interrupted  by  hills,  with  the 
chapel  which  marks  the  exact  centre  of  the  Iberian 
Peninsula  on  one  side,  and  the  Snow  Mountains  on 
another.  I  know  of  few  more  picturesque  situations 
for  a  capital ;  and  the  rapid  increase  in  the  popula- 
tion of  Madrid,  together  with  the  healthy  appear- 
ance of  the  inhabitants,  indicates  that  the  climate  is 
not  quite  as  bad  as  its  reputation. 

Returning  to  the  Puerta  del  Sol,  and  subjecting  it 
to  a  closer  scrutiny,  one  cannot  but  wonder  at  first 
why  it  should  be  such  a  famous  place.  It  is  an 
ordinary  square,  such  as  may  be  found  in  almost 
any  city  of  a  hundred  thousand  inhabitants,  and  is 
not  even  the  finest  square  in  Madrid.  Its  impor- 
tance lies  in  the  fact  that,  as  already  intimated,  it  is 
the  heart  of  the  city,  and  the  centre  of  its  traffic  and 
amusements.  The  buildings  which  frame  it  in  are 
the  principal  hotels  in  the  city,  and  here,  too,  are 


14  SPAIN  AND  MOKOCCO 

situated  several  of  the  principal  cafes,  in  which  the 
gossips  discuss  and  the  politicians  settle  the  affairs 
of  the  nation.  These  cafes  are  very  large,  but  not 
so  elegant  as  the  Parisian  and  Viennese  cafes,  nor  is 
the  coffee  as  good.  But  the  chocolate  is  excellent, 
and  still  better  are  the  various  sherbets  and  com- 
pounds of  lemon,  sugar,  and  water,  in  the  brewing 
of  which  the  Spaniards  exercise  as  much  ingenuity 
as  the  "Ingleses,"  i.e.,  Americans,  in  their  mixed 
drinks.  There  are  no  newspapers  at  the  disposal  of 
frequenters  of  the  cafes,  but  they  can  buy  the  local 
sheets  at  the  door,  where  there  is  generally  a  small 
news-stand.  Most  of  these  Spanish  newspapers  sell 
at  one  cent,  and  they  contain  very  little  of  interest 
to  foreigners. 

The  Madrid  cafes  give  one  a  vivid  sense  of  the 
fact  that  the  Spaniards  are  the  most  democratic  na- 
tion in  the  world.  In  Paris  or  Vienna  one  hardly 
ever  sees  a  peasant  or  an  ill-dressed  city  loafer  enter 
a  cafe  ;  but  in  Madrid  all  classes  meet  in  these 
places  on  equal  terms,  the  peasant  thinking  he  has 
as  much  claim  to  the  title  caballero  as  the  poli- 
tician or  officer.  In  this  democratic  atmosphere  it 
strikes  one  as  all  the  more  odd  that  the  guests 
should  call  the  attention  of  the  waiters  by  clapping 
their  hands — which  is  evidently  a  relic  of  Moorish 
days  in  Spain. 

The  hotels  in  Madrid  and  other  Spanish  cities  are 


COSMOPOLITAN  MADEID  15 

becoming  modernized  so  rapidly  that  one  has  to  go 
to  the  cheaper  ones  if  he  wishes  to  see  what  a 
Spanish  fonda  is  like.  In  the  larger  hotels  the  menu 
is  printed  in  French,  and  the  cookery  is  French  too. 
Certain  dishes,  peculiar  to  the  country,  continue, 
however,  to  give  a  local  flavor  to  the  meals,  and  the 
Spanish  hours  are  always  retained.  For  those  rare 
and  eccentric  beings  who  get  up  before  ten  o'clock 
a  desayuno  is  provided,  consisting  of  chocolate  or 
coffee,  with  bread  and  butter.  It  is  a  most  unsat- 
isfactory way  to  begin  the  day,  because  it  leaves  one 
hungry  all  the  forenoon,  even  if  one  can  swallow  the 
bread  and  butter.  Spanish  bread  is,  perhaps,  not 
unwholesome,  but  it  is  unappetizing  and  heavy,  and 
the  crust  is  almost  as  hard  as  a  cracker.  Of  the 
butter  a  little  goes  a  great  way.  The  Spaniards 
need  what  little  pasturage  they  have  for  their  bulls, 
so  that  cows  are  scarce,  and  goats  have  to  be  de- 
pended on  for  the  breakfast  requisites.  Goafs-milk 
to  me  is  an  abomination,  yet  it  is  the  only  kind  one 
can  get  here.  It  is  quite  unwholesome  in  summer 
to  foreigners,  and  hardly  less  so  to  the  natives,  who 
have  a  not  very  charitable  proverb  to  the  effect 
that  in  March  milk  is  good  for  yourself,  in  April  for 
your  brother,  and  in  May  for  your  mother-in-law. 
If  the  guide-books  would  condescend  to  mention 
this  matter,  many  a  tourist  might  be  saved  a  few 
days  of  discomfort,  such  as  I  suffered  from  until  an 


16  SPAIN   AND  MOROCCO 

Englishman,  who  has  long  lived  in  the  country,  ad- 
vised me  to  drink  my  coffee  without  milk,  or  take 
chocolate,  and  quoted  the  proverb  just  referred  to. 
Much  more  satisfactory  are  the  other  two  meals 
which  are  served  in  this  country — the  almuerzo  or 
breakfast,  and  the  comida  or  dinner.  The  latter  is 
generally  served  as  a  table  d'hote  at  a  fixed  hour, 
while  the  almuerzo  must  be  a  sore  trial  to  cooks 
and  waiters,  since  it  lasts  from  ten  to  one  o'clock. 
Every  one  drops  in  when  he  feels  hungry,  and  or- 
ders, from  a  list  of  a  dozen  or  twenty,  three  dishes, 
which  are  cooked  to  order  in  ample  portions.  The 
first  course  generally  consists  of  eggs  in  some  form 
or  other,  or  some  kind  of  sea-food,  of  which  there 
is  a  great  variety.  Kidneys,  beefsteak,  and  mutton 
cutlets  are  always  on  the  list.  For  dessert  there  are 
cheese,  oranges,  cherries,  strawberries  (small  but 
good),  apricots,  roasted  almonds,  etc.  Strawberries 
are  eaten  with  sugar  and  the  juice  of  an  orange 
squeezed  over  them,  which  I  find  better  (i.e.,  with 
a  Spanish  orange)  than  the  French  way  of  adding 
claret,  or  the  American  of  adding  cream.  At  the 
table  d'hote  one  occasionally,  but  not  often,  gets 
opportunity  to  taste  the  famous  national  dish,  the 
puchero,  of  which  De  Amicis  happily  says  that  "  it 
is,  in  regard  to  the  culinary  art,  what  an  anthology 
is  to  literature  :  it  is  a  little  of  everything  and  the 
best,"  There  are  slices  of  beef,  ham,  smoked  sau- 


COSMOPOLITAN  MADEID  17 

sage,  fowl,  and  other  kinds  of  meat,  and  little  piles 
of  various  kinds  of  vegetables  heaped  around  the 
plate.  The  guest  helps  himself  to  one  or  all  of 
these  as  he  chooses.  A  decanter  of  red  wine,  Val 
de  Pefias,  is  placed  between  every  two  plates,  and  if 
emptied  is  filled  again,  without  charge.  But  it 
rarely  is  emptied  unless  two  Frenchmen  happen  to 
get  hold  of  the  same  bottle.  Spaniards  drink  very 
little  of  their  wine  (although  it  is  good  and  much 
purer  than  French  wine),  and  tourists  soon  follow 
their  example,  whatever  may  be  their  habits  at 
home.  The  climate  of  Spain  is  antagonistic  to 
strong  drink,  and  a  temperance  question  does  not 
exist  here.  Indeed,  I  do  not  think  a  Spaniard 
could  be  more  astonished  than  by  the  question 
whether  there  was  a  temperance  or  total-abstinence 
movement  in  his  country. 

I  believe  that  not  a  few  persons  who  would  like 
to  see  the  art  treasures  of  Spain  are  deterred  from 
visiting  the  country  by  their  belief  in  the  old  myth 
that  fastidious  strangers  must  starve  here,  because 
everything  is  fried  in  unpalatable  oil  and  seasoned 
with  garlic.  This  apprehension  is  to-day  as  ground- 
less as  the  fear  oj  meeting  with  highwaymen. 
Since  the  Government  placed  the  country  under  the 
protection  of  the  "  civil  guards,"  who  are  to  be  seen 
in  couples  wherever  needed,  Spain  is  as  safe  as 
any  country  in  the  world  to  travel  in  ;  and  since 
2 


18  SPAIN  AND  MOROCCO 

French — or  rather  Swiss — methods  have  been  intro- 
duced in  the  hotels,  garlic  and  bad  oil  have  become 
memories  of  the  past,  and  one  fares  as  well  in 
Spanish  hotels,  at  least  in  the  cities,  as  anywhere, 
while  the  charges  are  remarkably  reasonable,  rarely 
exceeding  $2  to  $3  a  day,  everything  included,  $2.50 
being  the  average,  at  the  best  hotels.  Nor  are 
Spanish  trains  so  slow  or  so  inconvenient  in  their 
hours  as  they  have  been  represented  by  tourists 
who  know  of  no  other  way  of  spicing  their  letters 
than  by  exaggeration.  The  fast  train  from  Paris  to 
southern  Spain  necessarily  traverses  part  of  the  way 
at  night.  But  one  sees  the  Pyrenees  scenery,  and 
subsequently,  by  selecting  the  proper  trains,  one 
can  traverse  the  whole  of  Spain  by  daylight. 

The  only  real  ground  for  complaint  which  tourists 
have  is  that  the  natives  stubbornly  refuse  to  modify 
their  climate  and  their  habits  to  suit  the  conven- 
ience of  strangers.  It  is  embarrassing,  on  arriving 
in  Madrid,  to  find  that,  roughly  speaking,  the  in- 
habitants sleep  in  the  daytime,  and  live  and  move 
about  at  night.  Now,  a  tourist  wants  to  see  both 
the  city  and  its  inhabitants.  But  the  city  can  only 
be  seen  comfortably  from  8  to.  10  A.M.,  before  the 
sun  becomes  unbearable,  and  the  inhabitants  can 
only  be  seen  from  7  P.M.  to  2  A.M.  The  only  way 
out  of  the  dilemma  is  to  "  do  as  the  Romans  do"  : 
take  a  two-hour  nap,  or  siesta,  in  the  afternoon  ; 


COSMOPOLITAN   MADRID  19 

then  you  can  get  along  with  six  hours'  sleep  at  night, 
and  rise  early  to  see  the  sights.  The  afternoon 
is  of  no  use  any  way,  as  the  heat  is  too  enervating 
to  allow  any  mental  or  physical  exertion.  But  the 
Spaniards,  not  content  with  their  siesta,  devote  the 
golden  morning  hours  also  to  sleep,  and  herein,  I 
am  convinced,  lies  the  main  cause  of  Spanish  de- 
cadence. The  five  hours  from  8  A.M.  to  1  P.M.  are 
worth  more  for  solid  work  of  any  kind  than  all  the 
other  nineteen  hours,  and  these  precious  hours  the 
Spaniards  waste,  partly  in  sleep,  partly  by  an 
untimely,  heavy  meal  at  eleven  or  twelve.  No 
amount  of  night  work  can  ever  atone  for  the  hours 
thus  sacrificed.  "  Morgenstunde  hat  Gold  im 
Munde." 

Yet  it  cannot  be  denied  that  there  is  a  peculiar 
fascination  in  Spanish  night  life ;  and  a  nation 
which  lives  more  for  pleasure  than  for  business  can- 
not be  blamed  for  its  customs  in  this  respect.  Sun- 
worship  could  never  have  originated  in  Spain.  The 
most  delightful  thing  in  Spain  is  the  wonderfully 
blue  sky  ;  the  most  detestable  thing,  the  sun  that 
causes  it.  No  Spaniard  would  ever  have  sold  hi3 
shadow  to  the  devil,  like  the  German,  Peter 
Schlemihl,  for  such  a  paltry  thing  as  a  purse  of  gold 
which  never  became  empty  ;  for,  much  as  he  likes 
gold,  he  likes  shade  more.  A  "  sombra  "  seat  in  the 
bull  ring  costs  twice  as  much  as  a  seat  in  the  sun, 


20  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

and  in  walking  about  during  the  daytime  along 
their  tortuous  streets,  the  natives  constantly  cross 
and  recross  them  in  order  to  utilize  every  yard  of 
shade. 

No  sooner  has  the  sun  set  than  the  deserted 
streets  become  populous,  and  everybody  hastens  to 
the  Prado,  or  public  promenade,  to  enjoy  the  cool 
and  fragrant  breezes  and  greet  his  friends.  All 
who  can  afford  it — and  many  who  ought  to  spend 
their  scant  income  in  a  more  sensible  way — come 
out  in  their  carriages.  No  other  city  in  the  world 
can  turn  out  so  many  teams  of  Andalusian  horses,  as 
proud  and  graceful  as  their  masters  and  mistresses  ; 
but  nowhere,  on  the  other  hand,  would  one  see  the 
ignoble  mule  team  amid  such  a  procession  of  aristo- 
cratic carriages.  The  mule  may  be  a  noble  animal, 
but,  by  the  side  of  the  Andalusian  horse,  he  looks 
very  uncouth  and  utilitarian.  Yet  those  who  sit  in 
the  carriage  behind  the  two  mules  appear  not  a  bit 
less  vain  than  the  occupants  of  a  four-horse  carriage, 
and  doubtless  consider  themselves  a  degree  higher 
in  the  social  scale  than  those  who  walk  along  the 
Prado.  On  Sundays  and  holidays  there  is  such  a 
dense  throng  of  pedestrians  that  one  can  move 
along  but  slowly — which  is  just  what  you  want, 
since  there  is  much  to  see.  I  saw  more  feminine 
beauty  in  one  week  in  Madrid  than  I  ever  saw  any- 
where else  in  four  weeks.  And  it  is  pleasant  to 


COSMOPOLITAN  MADEID  21 

notice  that  there  seems  to  be  a  reaction  in  favor  of 
the  mantilla,  at  least  in  the  middle  classes,  whose 
heads  are  not  so  often  disfigured  as  ten  years  ago 
by  the  hideous  Parisian  hats. 

The  procession — and  public  reception — in  the 
Prado  is  a  bit  of  genuine  Spanish  local  color  in  cos- 
mopolitan Madrid.  To  see  more  local  color  one 
has  only  to  go  to  Toledo  Street  and  the  older 
quarters  of  the  city  to  find  it  in  abundance.  I  was 
so  fortunate  as  to  be  in  Madrid  on  May  15,  when  the 
principal  festival  of  the  year  is  celebrated  by  the 
lower  classes  and  the  peasants  who  come  from 
neighboring  villages.  It  is  the  festival  of  San 
Isidro,  the  patron  saint  of  Madrid,  a  bishop  of  the 
seventh  century,  who  is  also  by  some  considered 
the  inventor  of  harmony  in  music.  I  had  no  idea 
where  the  festival  was  to  be  held,  but  simply  went 
into  the  Puerta  del  Sol  and  followed  the  crowd,  in 
the  afternoon.  Thus  I  got  across  the  Manzanares, 
in  the  meadow  along  the  bank  of  which,  for  a  mile 
or  so,  a  most  interesting  sight  presented  itself.  The 
road  was  lined  with  men  and  women  offering  their 
"agua  fresca"  from  large  jugs.  The  street-cars, 
'busses,  and  miscellaneous  vehicles  (some  with  aa 
many  as  six  mules)  emptied  their  crowded  cargoes, 
and  soon  the  meadow  was  like  an  ant-hill,  except 
that  ants  are  usually  in  mourning  and  do  not  wear 
such  bright  colors  as  the  peasant  women  and  the 


22  SPAIN  AND  MOROCCO 

soldiers  in  this  crowd.  There  were  innumerable 
booths  for  eating  and  drinking,  carrousels,  and 
other  common  features  of  folk  festivals.  More 
unique  were  the  family  groups  scattered  every- 
where, eating  their  slices  of  cold  meat,  salad,  red- 
pepper,  and  oranges.  Many  had  their  wine  in  the 
same  old  pig-skins  of  which  one  reads  in  Don 
Quixote.  Every  hundred  yards  there  was  some 
sort  of  primitive  music — often  simply  a  drum — to 
the  rhythm  of  which  the  young  men  and  women 
danced  with  an  expression  of  intense  delight. 
Indeed,  the  whole  crowd  wore  a  look  of  indifference 
to  the  past  and  future,  and  determination  to  make 
the  most  of  the  passing  moment.  A  greater  number 
of  happy  faces  I  never  saw  together  in  my  life,  nor 
a  more  good-natured  crowd.  Further  up  the  hill 
•were  long  rows  of  booths  with  pottery,  toys  for 
children,  cakes,  etc.  ;  and,  further  up  still  was  the 
saint's  Chapel,  into  which  all  crowded,  to  kiss  a 
silver  image  held  by  a  priest,  to  receive  a  printed 
picture  of  the  saint,  and  to  drop  a  copper. 

These  are  some  of  the  ways  in  which  the  people 
of  Madrid  amuse  themselves.  There  is  another 
way  concerning  which,  with  many  apologies,  I  wish 
to  say  a  few  words.  Mr.  O'Shea,  in  his  very  unro- 
mantic  book  called  "Romantic  Spain,"  says  he  met 
a  colleague  of  the  press  at  Madrid,  a  representative 
of  a  great  English  paper,  who  told  him  that  almost 


COSMOPOLITAN  MADRID  23 

the  only  instructions  he  had  received  on  leaving 
London  were  not  to  write  anything  of  bull-fighting, 
or  "hackneyed  rubbish  of  that  sort."  No  doubt, 
since  the  day  when  Byron  gave  his  rhymed  de- 
scription of  the  bull-fight  he  saw  in  Cadiz,  this  sort 
of  thing  has  been  overdone.  But  it  may  still  be 
permissible  to  record  a  few  of  the  thoughts  which 
occurred  to  me  during  the  bull-fight  I  saw  at  Ma- 
drid. Six  bulls  were  to  be  killed  ;  I  left  after  the 
third  had  been  butchered,  and  his  carcass  dragged 
out  by  the  mules — equally  disgusted  and  bored; 
and  nothing  could  ever  induce  me  to  attend  an- 
other;  not  only  because  of  its  brutal  and  cruel 
character,  but  because  it  is  the  most  unsportsman- 
like and  cowardly  spectacle  I  have  ever  seen. 

It  is  useless  to  argue  against  bull -fights  with 
Spaniards  on  the  ground  that  they  are  cruel.  The 
priests  keep  them  in  ignorance  of  modern  science, 
and  their  theology  denies  that  animals  have  souls 
and  feelings  like  men  ;  hence  they  cannot  be  ex- 
pected to  sympathize  with  animals  ;  the  priests  are 
partly  responsible  for  the  bull-fights,  as  for  many 
other  things  that  are  deplorable  in  Spain  of  to- 
day and  the  past.  But  there  is  another  way  in 
which  a  Spaniard  might  be  induced  to  mend  his 
ways  :  by  appealing  to  his  highly-developed  sense  of 
honor  and  making  it  perfectly  clear  to  him  that 
bull -fighting  as  at  present  conducted  is  cowardly 


24  SPAIN   AND  MOROCCO 

and  unsportsmanlike.  The  treatment  of  the  poor 
horses,  in  the  first  place,  is  cowardly  in  the  extreme. 
They  are  blindfolded,  and  therefore  advance  fear- 
lessly until  the  bull  rips  up  their  bellies,  so  that  often 
the  entrails  drop  out  and  the  horse  steps  on  them. 
It  appeared  to  me  that  this  sight  pleased  the  audi- 
ences at  bull-fights  more  than  anything  else.  In  the 
telegrams  published  regarding  these  fights,  however 
brief,  it  is  always  stated  how  many  horses  were 
killed,  obviously  because  that  awakens  pleasant 
memories  in  the  reader's  mind.  There  is  no  neces- 
sity for  thus  torturing  the  horses ;  by  simply  pro- 
tecting their  bellies  with  strong  canvas  they  might 
be  saved.  The  excuse  given  is  that  the  horses  are 
old  and  worthless.  Quite  so  :  the  same  reason  that 
is  given  by  those  savages  who  abandon  their  wives 
and  parents  when  they  have  become  useless  to  them. 
And  these  are  the  Spaniards  whose  proudest  dis- 
tinction is  to  be  called  a  caballero  or  a  "horse- 
man !  " 

Equally  cowardly  is  the  treatment  of  the  bull.  A 
dozen  skilled  men  armed  with  lances  and  swords 
combine  to  murder  a  beast  who  is  naturally  one  of 
the  stupidest  of  animals,  and  who  is  still  more 
blinded  by  the  rage  into  which  he  is  goaded.  No 
man  who  has  a  sense  of  true  sport  would  engage 
with  a  dozen  other  men  against  a  brute  that  is  so 
stupid  as  to  expend  its  fury  a  hundred  times  in 


COSMOPOLITAN  MADRID  25 

succession  on  a  piece  of  red  cloth,  ignoring  the  man 
who  holds  it.  Such  a  performance  is  considered  an 
exhibition  of  skill  and  daring.  A  Frenchman,  The- 
ophile  Gautier,  was  so  demoralized  by  his  first  bull- 
fight, that  he  exclaimed,  in  his  ignorance  of  the  true 
state  of  affairs,  that  the  first  moment,  when  the  es- 
pada  faces  the  bull  with  his  sword,  "is  worth  all  the 
dramas  of  Shakespeare ;  in  a  few  seconds,  one  of  the 
two  actors  will  be  dead.  Will  it  be  the  man  or  the 
bull  ?  "  This  seems  very  dramatic,  but  it  is  rubbish. 
There  is  no  doubt  whatever  about  the  result.  In 
nine  hundred  and  ninety-nine  cases  out  of  a  thousand 
the  bull  will  be  killed.  Men  who  know  have  told 
me  that  it  is  only  once  in  two  or  three  years  that  an 
accident  happens  to  a  bull-fighter.  These  fellows 
are  experts  whose  apparent  risks  are  not  risks  at  all. 
It  is  a  sort  of  billiard  game  with  the  bull's  horns  ; 
and  everyone  knows  what  marvellous  skill  one  can 
require  by  devoting  one's  self  to  one  special  thing. 
Besides,  when  the  bull  finally  faces  the  espada  all  the 
vitality  has  been  taken  out  of  him  by  the  prelim- 
inary skirmishes  and  the  slaughter  of  horses,  and 
the  espada,  unless  he  is  a  fool,  runs  no  risk  at  all. 
There  was  a  time  when  bull-fighting  was  an  exhibi- 
tion of  courage — the  time  when  knightly  amateurs 
took  part  in  it  ;  but  now  that  it  is  done  by  special- 
ists it  is  simply  butchery  ;  and  butchery  of  the  most 
unsportsmanlike  kind,  because  the  bull,  however 


26  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

brave,  never  has  a  chance  to  save  his  life ;  he  is 
inevitably  killed,  unless  he  is  a  coward  and  refuses 
to  fight  from  the  beginning. 

I  do  not  believe  that  the  Spanish  rabble  is  natu- 
rally more  cruel  than  the  rabble  of  other  countries. 
If  bull-fights  likes  these  in  Madrid  were  given  in 
London,  Berlin,  or  New  York  they  would  not  fail  to 
draw  equally  large  audiences  ;  as  witness  the  enor- 
mous popularity  of  the  disgusting  exhibitions  of 
Sullivan  and  other  pugilists.  The  only  difference  is 
that  in  England,  Germany,  and  America  there  is 
sufficient  refinement  among  people  of  influence  to 
discountenance  bull-fights.  In  Spain,  too,  among 
the  better  classes,  there  is  a  growing  feeling  against 
these  barbarous  exhibitions,  but  they  have  not  suffi- 
cient influence  to  forbid  them.  The  women,  be  it 
said  to  their  credit,  rarely  attend  these  fights.  At 
those  I  saw  in  Madrid  there  were  two  hundred  men 
to  every  woman  ;  and  at  Seville  and  elsewhere  I  re- 
peatedly went  to  the  bull  ring  toward  the  closing  of 
a  performance  to  watch  the  people  come  out.  As 
a  rule  there  was  not  one  woman  to  every  three 
hundred  men  in  those  degraded  audiences. 


Ill 

TWO  SKELETON  CITIES 

The  Round  Trip.  —  A  Toledo  Boarding  House.  —  Narrow 
Streets.  —  A  Deserted  Cathedral.  —  Stronghold  of  the 
Priests. — A  Country  Railway  Station. — A  Proud  Beg- 
gar.— Popularity  of  Bull  •  Fighters. — Cordova  and  its 
Mosque.— The  Marble  Forest. —Moorish  Relics.— Water 
Carriers. 

SPAIN  has  been  hitherto  outside  of  the  regular  cur- 
rent of  tourist  travel  in  Europe,  but  every  year  adds 
to  the  number  of  sight-seers.  Apart  from  the  in- 
teresting sights  which  it  contains,  it  offers  unusual 
facilities  for  a  "  round  trip,"  for,  with  few  exceptions, 
the  most  attractive  points  are  grouped  in  a  circle 
along  the  principal  lines  of  railway  and  steamboat 
travel.  Starting  at  Burgos,  the  tourist  whose  time 
is  limited  to  six  or  eight  weeks  proceeds  to  Valla- 
dolid  and  Madrid  ;  thence  to  Toledo,  Cordova,  Se- 
ville, and  Cadiz,  thence  by  steamer  to  Tangier, 
Gibraltar,  and  Malaga ;  thence  to  Granada,  Valencia, 
and  Barcelona,  and  finally,  to  complete  the  circle, 
back  to  France  via  Saragossa  or  Barcelona.  Village 
life  may  be  easily  studied  by  stopping  over  at  some 


28  SPAIN   AND   MOEOCCO 

of  the  smaller  stations ;  and  even  this  is  hardly  nec- 
essary, so  far  as  the  populace  is  concerned,  for  on 
the  religious  holidays,  which  are  as  numerous  as 
Sundays,  all  the  villagers  and  peasants  visit  the 
cities  in  their  best  clothes,  ready  to  be  inspected 
and  to  inspect  you  in  turn. 

The  three  cities  at  which  a  stop  of  at  least  a  week 
each  should  be  made  are  Madrid,  Seville,  and  Gra- 
nada ;  and  if  the  tour  is  made  in  spring,  Seville 
should  be  visited  before  Granada,  because  it  is  a 
much  warmer  place,  many  Sevillans,  in  fact,  going 
to  Granada  in  summer  for  fresh  air.  I  am  not  of 
the  opinion  of  those  who  advise  tourists  to  waste  as 
little  time  as  possible  in  Madrid.  The  capital  has 
fewer  architectural  and  antiquarian  attractions  than 
such  places  as  Toledo  and  Cordova,  but  it  has  the 
finest  picture  gallery — one  of  the  best  in  Europe, 
full  of  gems — the  streets  are  more  animated,  both 
day  and  night,  than  elsewhere  ;  the  promenades 
more  frequented,  and  the  women  not  inferior  in 
beauty  to  those  in  Andalusia. 

As  Toledo,  though  visited  by  all  foreigners,  has 
not  a  single  tolerable  hotel,  tourists  are  in  the  habit 
of  going  there  in  the  morning  from  Madrid,  and 
returning  in  the  evening,  which  leaves  them  only 
about  four  hours  to  see  the  place  and  its  wonders. 
It  is  much  better  to  take  the  evening  train  to  Tole- 
do, and  spend  the  night  at  a  casa  de  huespedes,  or 


TWO   SKELETON   CITIES  29 

boarding-house,  kept  by  two  ancient  dames,  where 
one  can  find  a  tolerable  amount  of  comfort  and  fair 
meals.  We  chose  this  plan,  and  did  not  regret  it, 
although  the  noise  in  the  narrow  streets,  where  a 
whisper  sounds  like  a  shout  and  a  footstep  like  a 
horse's  gallop,  precluded  the  idea  of  sleep  which 
would  have  been  murdered  anyhow  by  what  seemed 
to  be  bloodthirsty  inquisitors  transformed  by  me- 
tempsychosis into  their  entomological  equivalents. 
The  only  serious  disadvantage  of  arriving  at  Toledo 
in  the  evening  is  that  one  misses  the  general  sight 
of  the  hill-town  on  approaching  it ;  but  this  can  be 
easily  compensated  for  by  ascending  the  hill  across 
the  river  on  the  following  day,  and  thence  enjoying 
the  bird's-eye  view  of  this  fortress  city,  which  was 
strong  enough  at  one  time  to  withstand  a  four  year's 
siege,  as  one  can  readily  believe  on  noting  its  com- 
manding, inaccessible  site  on  a  hill,  surrounded  by 
high  walls  and  by  the  river  Tagus,  which  sweeps 
around  it  in  a  semicircular  curve. 

The  omnibus  from  the  station,  after  crossing  the 
old  bridge  and  passing  through  the  Puerta  del  Sol, 
once  the  only  entrance  to  the  city,  plunges  reck- 
lessly into  a  maze  of  streets  so  narrow  that  there  is 
hardly  room  for  the  few  people  in  them  to  pass  by 
without  being  ground  to  powder,  and  one  begins  to 
speculate  what  would  happen  if  it  should  meet  an- 
other wagon.  But  this  fear  is  idle,  for  the  railway 


30  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

omnibus  is  the  only  vehicle  in  this  town  of  20,000 
inhabitants,  traffic  being  carried  on  chiefly  with 
donkeys  and  mules,  as  elsewhere  in  Spain,  and  as  it- 
doubtless  was  at  the  time  when  Toledo  was  the 
capital  of  the  country  and  had  ten  times  as  many 
inhabitants  as  at  present.  The  houses  remain,  but 
in  a  more  or  less  dilapidated  state,  and  what  one 
sees  is  merely  "  the  skeleton  of  the  ancient  city,  the 
necropolis  of  three  empires."  The  flesh  and  blood, 
the  people,  are  gone,  never  to  return,  and  I  actually 
believe  there  are  to-day  more  dogs  than  human  be- 
ings in  Toledo.  One  need  only  walk  for  ten  minutes 
along  these  narrow,  tortuous  streets  to  realize  the 
absurdity  of  the  sentimental  complaints  that  the 
capital  should  have  been  transferred  from  Toledo  to 
Madrid.  Such  streets,  doubtless,  are  of  great  ad- 
vantage in  so  far  as  they  keep  out  the  scorching  rays 
of  the  sun,  but  they  would  be  wofully  inadequate 
to  sustain  the  traffic  of  a  modern  capital,  all  the 
more  as  most  of  them  run  up  and  down  hill.  As, 
moreover,  the  scenery  at  Toledo  is  by  no  means 
equal  to  that  at  Madrid,  while  the  climate  is  quite 
as  trying — as  scorching  in  summer  and  as  cold  in 
winter — and  the  streets  more  dusty,  owing  to  the 
scarcity  of  water,  it  seems  time  to  protest  against 
the  habitual  scolding  of  tourists  for  devoting  a  whole 
week  to  Madrid  and  only  a  day  to  Toledo.  All  that 
the  ordinary  tourist  cares  for  in  Toledo — the  cathe- 


TWO   SKELETON   CITIES  31 

% 

dral,  the  Alcazar,  the  gates  and  churches,  the  re- 
mains of  the  Roman  circus — can  be  seen  in  a  day, 
and  some  little  time  will  even  perhaps  remain  for 
visiting  the  place  where  the  famous  "Toledo  blades" 
are  manufactured  for  the  army,  at  the  rate  of  about 
3,000  a  year ;  they  are,  however,  made  of  imported 
metal,  and  said  to  be  inferior  to  the  ancient  original 
article. 

As  I  am  not  writing  a  guide-book,  I  shall  not 
attempt  to  describe  the  famous  Toledo  Cathedral, 
all  the  more  as  I  find  in  my  own  experience  that  the 
most  vivid  descriptions  of  architectural  monuments 
make  but  a  confused  impression  on  the  mind  until 
one  has  seen  them  with  his  own  eyes.  How  much 
there  is  to  be  seen  in  this  cathedral  may  be  inferred 
from  the  fact  that  Seiior  Parro,  author  of  a  work  of 
1,550  pages  on  Toledo,  devotes  as  many  as  745  to  the 
cathedral.  Special  admirers  of  ecclesiastic  sculpture 
and  architectural  details  have  here  a  week's  study 
and  enjoyment  laid  out  for  them.  The  priests  thor- 
oughly understood  the  art  of  blending  artistic  with 
religious  emotions,  and  thereby  increasing  their 
power  over  the  populace — very  much  as  Wagner  in- 
tensifies the  interest  in  his  music  by  means  of  his 
poetry  and  scenic  accessories.  Nevertheless,  times 
have  changed,  and  the  power  of  the  priests  in  Spain 
is  not  what  it  was.  The  churches  are  attended  by 
mere  handfuls  of  people,  mostly  women,  or  a  few 


32  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

men  of  the  lower  classes  ;  the  monasteries  have 
been  suppressed ;  and  no  outward  respect  is  shown 
to  the  priests — no  one  bows  or  runs  to  kiss  their 
hand  as  formerly ;  while  there  is  much  scoffing  and 
"  irreverence  "  among  all  classes.  Indeed,  compe- 
tent observers  agree  that  the  pendulum  has  swung 
from  the  extreme  of  bigotry  and  fanaticism  to  the 
opposite  extreme  of  scepticism  and  indifference. 
Toledo,  which  was  once  the  chief  seat  of  the  Inqui- 
sition, is  still  the  great  stronghold  of  the  priesthood. 
Here  lives  the  primate,  second  in  dignity  to  the 
king  alone  ;  but  he  no  longer  has  the  power  to  im- 
pose a  fine  of  two  thousand  maravedis  on  kings  for 
not  attending  service.  Could  he  at  present  impose 
proportional  fines  on  all  Spanish  "  Catholics  "  who 
neglect  to  attend  service,  he  would  be  the  richest 
man  in  the  world. 

Toledo  is  such  a  labyrinthine,  dreary,  desolate 
place,  its  deserted  streets  so  suggestive  of  Pompeii, 
that,  notwithstanding  its  numerous  art  treasures,  I 
fancy  that  few  tourists  are  sorry  to  leave  it  after  see- 
ing the  principal  attractions.  It  is  customary  to 
return  to  Madrid,  and  take  the  train  the  following 
day  for  Cordova,  but  it  is  possible  to  save  a  day  by 
going  from  Toledo  to  Castillejos,  and  waiting  there 
about  five  hours  for  the  night  train  to  Cordova.  I 
chose  this  plan,  and  thus  had  an  opportunity  to  see 
what  sort  of  a  life  people  lead  at  a  small  station 


TWO   SKELETON   CITIES  33 

consisting  of  two  or  three  houses.  A  very  quiet 
life  it  is,  the  only  "  events  "  being  the  arrival  of  the 
trains,  which  are  rather  frequent.  One  freight  train 
contained  several  carloads  of  soldiers,  while  on  sev- 
eral other  cars  were  a  dozen  peculiarly  shaped  high 
wooden  boxes,  through  the  chinks  in  which  small 
boys  peeped  with  an  expression  of  awe.  I  thought 
that  possibly  a  band  of  robbers  had  been  caught 
and  boxed,  and  that  the  soldiers  were  their  escort, 
but  on  following  the  example  of  the  boys  I  found 
that  the  boxes  contained  Andalusian  bulls  for  the 
ring  in  Madrid.  Small  a  station  as  Castillejos  is,  it 
has  its  two  well-armed  and  well-dressed  civil  guards 
and  its  beggar.  The  beggar  accosted  me  only  once, 
and  when  I  paid  no  attention  to  him,  he  stalked 
away  proudly,  lit  a  cigarette,  and  paid  no  further 
attention  to  me.  Afterward  I  saw  him  at  the  buffet 
buying  his  supper.  I  followed  his  example,  and 
succeeded  in  securing  some  hard-boiled  eggs,  bread, 
and  a  bottle  of  wine. 

At  eleven  o'clock  the  train  arrived,  and  when  I 
awoke  in  the  morning,  I  was  in  Andalusia,  the  "  gar- 
den of  Spain,"  famed  for  its  fragrant  orange-groves, 
its  wine,  women,  and  song,  its  dances,  its  gayety,  its 
festivals,  its  Moorish  architecture,  its  Murillos, 
living  and  painted,  and  its  perennial  blue  sky.  After 
fasting  so  long  among  the  arid,  treeless  hills  of 
northern  Spain,  it  was  a  perfect  picnic  for  the  eyes 


34  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

to  feast  once  more  on  green  meadows,  groups  of 
trees,  and  a  tropical  luxuriance  of  vegetation.  On 
entering  the  station,  we  found  it  filled  with  an 
eagerly  expectant  crowd,  and  a  brass  band  struck 
up  a  lively  tune.  The  crowd  and  the  music  were 
intended  for  a  group  of  bull-fighters,  who  soon 
emerged  from  a  first-class  car,  and  were  at  once 
greeted  by  the  authorities  and  surrounded  by  ad- 
mirers. Subsequently  I  repeatedly  found  a  group 
of  people  waiting  in  front  of  their  hotel  to  catch  a 
glimpse  of  them.  These  bull  fighters,  although 
the  most  vulgar-looking  and  brutal  persons  to  be 
seen  in  Spain,  and  although  despised  by  refined 
people,  are  worshipped  by  the  masses  with  an  ardor 
hardly  credible  unless  one  has  witnessed  its  mani- 
festations with  his  own  eyes.  If  you  ask  a  boy  what 
he  intends  to  be  when  he  grows  up,  he  will  instantly 
reply,  "Un  torero."  Biographies  of  these  heroes 
are  sold  in  front  of  the  bull-rings,  and  there  is  hardly 
a  window  in  the  town  where  their  photographs  are 
not  exposed  for  sale,  together  with  pictures  of  the 
fights  in  every  stage — pictures  which  also  adorn 
fans  and  handkerchiefs. 

At  first  sight  Cordova  does  not  belie  its  Andalu- 
sian  title,  by  right  of  which  it  ought  to  be  animated 
and  gayly  decked  out  with  trees  and  flowers.  The 
hotel  omnibus  passes  a  fine  public  garden  and  a 
number  of  new  houses  in  the  outskirts.  But  as 


TWO   SKELETON  CITIES  35 

soon  as  the  city  proper  is  entered,  the  tourist  be- 
comes aware  that  Cordova  is  still  what  Gautier 
called  it  half  a  century  ago — a  city  of  whose  body 
"nothing  remains  but  the  bleached  and  calcined 
skeleton."  We  have  entered  another  skeleton  city 
— a  term  the  more  applicable  from  the  prevalent 
habit  of  whitewashing  all  the  walls  and  all  the 
houses.  The  same  narrow,  dark,  tortuous  streets  as 
in  Toledo,  and  equally  deserted.  Mr.  Augustus 
Hare  says  of  these  streets  that  "  they  have  a  more 
thoroughly  African  appearance  than  those  of  any 
other  town  in  Spain.  One  threads  one's  way  be- 
tween interminable  whitewashed  walls,  their  scanty 
windows  guarded  by  heavy  iron  bars,  over  a  pebbly 
pavement  so  rough  that  it  is  like  the  bed  of  a  tor- 
rent littered  with  straw  from  the  burdens  of  in- 
numerable donkeys."  This  is  quite  graphic  ;  but 
•what  shall  we  say  of  the  impudence  of  Theophile 
Gautier,  who  wrote  exactly  the  same  thing  in 
the  same  words  many  years  before  Hare  ?  "  Cor- 
doue  a  1'aspect  plus  africain  que  toute  autre 
ville  d'Andalousie ;  ses  rues,  ou  plut6t  ses  ru- 
elles,  dont  le  pave  tumultueux  ressemble  au  lit 
de  torrents  a  sec,  toutes  jonchees  de  la  paille 
courte  qui  s'echappe  de  la  charge  des  anes,  n'ont 
rien  qui  rappelle  les  moaurs  et  les  habitudes  de 
1'Europe.  L'on  y  marche  entre  d'interminables 
murailles  couleur  de  craie,  aux  rares  fenetres,  treil- 


36  SPAIN  AND  MOKOCCO 

lissees  de  grilles  et  de  barreaux,"  etc.  I  find  in 
Gautier's  otherwise  most  charming  "  Voyage  en  Es- 
pagne "  numerous  plagiarisms  of  this  sort  from  the 
works  of  his  successors,  who,  however,  have  duly 
punished  him  by  rarely,  if  ever,  mentioning  his 
name.  Washington  Irving  was  another  sinner  like 
Gautier,  having  surreptitiously  anticipated  many 
things  to  be  found  as  original  matter  in  subsequent 
tourist  and  guide-books.  All  of  which  argues  a  sad 
state  of  literary  morality  in  the  good  old  times. 

Having  an  invincible  prejudice  against  profes- 
sional guides  (except  when  limited  time  makes  them 
a  necessary  evil),  I  studied  the  map  of  Cordova,  and 
resolved  to  find  the  great  mosque  alone.  But  in 
five  minutes  I  was  as  hopelessly  lost  as  if  I  had  de- 
scended in  a  balloon  into  the  midst  of  an  Alaskan 
forest.  When  I  began  to  ask  my  way,  it  was  amus- 
ing to  note  the  perplexed  expression  on  the  faces  of 
the  Cordovese.  They  knew  exactly  where  I  wanted 
to  go,  but  how  to  direct  me  was  the  puzzle.  It  was 
"  no  go."  Finally,  I  gave  a  boy  a  copper  to  take  me 
to  a  place  where  I  could  buy  a  pocket  compass.  I 
might  have  had  him  take  me  to  the  mosque  quite 
as  well,  but  my  spirit  was  aroused,  and  I  resolved 
to  find  that  mosque  alone,  if  it  took  all  summer. 
With  map  and  compass  in  hand  it  was  easy 
enough  to  walk  straight  up  to  it,  and  in  the 
same  manner  I  found  my  way  about  the  city  subse- 


TWO   SKELETON   CITIES  37 

quently  as  infallibly  as  if  I  had  been  a  Cunarder  in 
mid-Atlantic  bound  for  New  York  or  Queenstown. 
And  the  mosque  was  quite  worth  the  trouble  I  had 
taken  to  find  it.  Notwithstanding  that  much  of  its 
glory  is  gone  (thanks  to  the  stupidity  of  the  bishop 
who  marred  the  central  portion  by  building  a 
church  in  it,  thereby  reducing  the  number  of  col- 
umns from  1,400  to  860,  and  partly  destroying  its 
sublime  proportions),  it  made  a  deeper  impression 
on  me  than  any  building  I  had  ever  seen,  except- 
ing the  Doges'  Palace  in  Venice.  It  was  a  sensible 
idea  on  the  part  of  the  Moorish  builders  to  seek  to 
attain  sublimity  by  lateral  expansion  and  distance, 
by  length  and  width,  rather  than  by  height  (as  in 
Gothic  cathedrals),  and  by  the  superabundance  of 
columns.  The  one  disadvantage  of  the  Gothic  style 
is,  that  height  can  only  be  appreciated  amid  great 
physical  discomfort  and  straining  of  the  neck  mus- 
cles, while  the  beauties  of  the  ceiling  can  only  be 
appreciated  with  the  aid  of  an  opera-glass.  The 
Cordovan  Mosque  is  quite  low,  but  if  the  original 
ceiling  remained,  and  the  central  columns  were 
restored,  I  am  sure  this  would  not  be  felt  as  a  dis- 
advantage. 

I  cannot  refrain  from  once  more  referring  to 
Theophile  Gautier  and  his  influences.  Concerning 
the  impression  made  by  this  many-columned 
mosque,  he  says  :  "  You  appear  to  be  walking 


38  SPAIN   AND  MOEOCCO 

about  in  a  roofed  forest  rather  than  in  a  building  ; 
whichever  direction  you  turn  to,  your  eye  strays 
along  rows  of  columns  which  cross  each  other  and 
lengthen  out  endlessly,  like  marble  trees  that  have 
risen  spontaneously  from  the  soil"  Possibly 
Gautier  was  not  the  first  who  compared  these  col- 
umns to  a  marble  forest,  but  I  suspect  he  was,  and 
the  comparison  did  not  strike  me  as  very  pertinent 
on  the  spot.  Nevertheless,  it  was  eagerly  taken  up 
by  all  subsequent  writers,  and  underwent  a  regular 
evolution  in  specificality,  so  to  speak.  De  Amicis, 
for  instance,  says  :  "  Imagine  a  forest,  fancy  yourself 
in  the  thickest  portion  of  it,  and  that  you  can  see 
nothing  but  the  trunks  of  trees.  So,  in  this  mosque, 
on  whatever  side  you  look,  the  eye  loses  itself  among 
the  columns.  It  is  a  forest  of  marble  whose  con- 
fines one  cannot  discover."  And  Mr.  E.  E.  Hale 
caps  the  climax  by  saying  regarding  this  "forest  of 
marble"  :  "It  is  not  hard  to  persuade  yourself  that 
you  hear  the  wind,  as  you  might  in  a  forest  at 
home." 

The  costliness  of  the  "marble  forest,"  and  the 
other  evidences  of  wealth  in  the  mosque,  though 
but  a  shadow  of  what  they  were  once,  almost  con- 
vince one  that  there  is  little  exaggeration  in  the  as- 
sertion of  the  old  Arabian  historian,  that  Cordova, 
about  a  thousand  years  ago,  was  the  most  impor- 
tant city  in  Europe,  containing  1,000,000  inhabit- 


TWO   SKELETON   CITIES  39 

ants,  600  inns,  300  mosques,  and  900  baths.  It  has 
now  about  50,000  inhabitants  and  one  public  bath. 
And  this  change  is  due  to  the  influence  of  the 
priests,  who  expelled  the  industrious  Moors  and 
Jews,  and  compelled  them  to  seek  new  homes  in 
Granada  and  Morocco.  The  influence  of  the  Moors, 
however,  has  remained  in  the  character  of  the  streets 
and  the  houses,  with  their  cool  inner  courts  or  pa- 
tios. In  a  walled  town,  where  space  is  very  valu- 
able, only  a  great  inherited  love  of  gardens,  foun- 
tains, flowers,  and  fresh  air  could  induce  the  inhabi- 
tants to  sacrifice  so  much  space  to  these  patios. 

I  was  fortunate  in  arriving  at  Cordova  during  its 
principal  festival  week,  even  though  I  had  to  pay 
double  price  at  the  hotel,  and  to  consider  myself 
lucky  in  getting  a  room  at  all.  The  festival  con- 
sisted in  illumination  with  colored  lights  of  the  ala- 
meda,  or  public  promenade,  both  sides  of  which 
were  lined  with  booths  containing  chiefly  toys  for 
children.  At  one  end  were  some  cheap  shows  and 
some  restaurants,  in  front  of  which  a  kind  of  crul- 
lers were  fried  in  olive-oil.  Behind  the  booths  was 
a  donkey  market,  but  the  purchasers  seemed  to  be 
scarce,  being  probably  frightened  away  by  the 
frightful  braying  choruses  ;  and  toward  evening  the 
roads  were  crowded  with  the  unsold  donkeys  return* 
ing  home.  The  seats  along  the  alameda  (for  which 
two  cents  is  charged)  were  all  occupied,  and  a  dense 


40  SPAIN    AND   MOROCCO 

throng  of  pedestrians  made  locomotion  difficult  for 
any  one  but  the  water-carriers,  more  numerous  here 
than  anywhere  else.  They  keep  their  water  cool  by 
having  it  in  porous  jugs,  the  evaporation  from  which 
keeps  the  water  at  a  pleasant  temperature,  and 
obviates  the  necessity  of  using  microbe-infected  and 
dyspepsia-breeding  ice.  Spain  has  much  to  learn 
and  adopt  from  other  nations,  but  it  has  some  im- 
provements to  offer  in  return  ;  and  among  the  fore- 
most are  the  Andalusian  water  jugs,  and  the  cool 
and  cosey  patios,  which  serve  as  reception-rooms  in 
the  morning  and  evening. 


IV 

LOCAL  COLOR  IN  SEVILLE 

Moorish  and  Christian  Architecture. — Ascending  the  Giral- 
da. — Cafes  and  Awning-covered  Streets. — Street  Cars  a 
Novelty. — A  Funeral  Procession. — A  Remarkable  Post 
Office. — Historic  Contrasts. — Moorish  Patios. — Beauties 
of  the  Alcazar.— Noisy  Serenos. — A  Ballet  in  the  Ca- 
thedral.— Musical  Students  of  Salamanca. 

SPAIN  is  doubtless  the  only  country  in  the  world 
where  one  can  on  the  same  day — within  six  hours — 
admire  and  study  two  of  the  greatest  masterpieces 
of  Christian  and  Mohammedan  architecture.  I 
left  the  Cordova  Mosque  one  morning  at  ten  o'clock 
for  the  railway  station,  and  at  four  o'clock  I  was  in 
the  Seville  Cathedral,  thus  having  an  excellent  op- 
portunity for  comparison.  In  speaking  of  the  Cor- 
dovan Mosque  I  ventured  to  question  the  apposite- 
ness  of  Gautier's  comparison  of  the  interior  of  that 
building  to  a  marble  forest.  The  coro  which  was 
unwisely  built  in  the  centre  of  the  old  mosque  in 
1523,  militates  against  such  an  impression,  and  the 
red  and  yellow  arches  which  were  put  up  in  1713  in 
place  of  the  original  ornamented  Moorish  ceiling, 
are  extremely  unsuggestive  of  forest  trees  and  their 


42  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

branches.  To  my  mind  this  comparison  to  a  forest 
seemed  much  more  natural  in  the  Seville  Cathedral. 
Vast  height,  dim  light,  gloom  and  awe  are  the  char- 
acteristics of  a  primitive  forest,  and  all  these,  absent 
in  Cordova,  are  to  be  found  in  the  Cathedral  of  Sev- 
ille. But  if  this  Cathedral  be  compared  to  a  petri- 
fied forest,  it  must  be  to  a  forest  of  giant  trees,  such 
as  those  in  the  Yosemite  Valley.  There  is  some- 
thing supremely  massive,  colossal,  mammoth,  in  the 
huge,  high  pillars  of  this  building — something  which 
makes  one  wonder,  as  do  the  pyramids  of  Egypt, 
that  human  might  should  have  sufficed  to  place 
these  monstrous  stones  in  an  upright  position,  and 
in  symmetrical  rows.  The  Cordovan  pillars  are 
mere  walking-sticks  in  comparison,  and  the  ceiling 
which  they  support  only  one-quarter  as  high  as  that 
in  the  Seville  Cathedral,  which  is  the  largest — and 
its  tower  the  highest — in  Spain.  So  vast  is  its  in- 
terior space  that,  notwithstanding  its  93  windows, 
a  dim,  mysterious  twilight  pervades  every  part  all 
day  long.  Yet,  although  Seville  is  the  warmest  and 
sunniest  place  in  Spain,  and  this  Cathedral  its  cool- 
est spot,  the  flock  of  worshippers  is  very  small 
indeed.  The  number  of  priests  who  officiate  at  the 
30  chapels  and  82  altars  has  been  reduced  from  133 
to  97  ;  but  it  seems  as  if  to-day  one-quarter  that 
number  would. suffice  for  all  needful  purposes. 
After  seeing  the  Cathedral,  the  most  important 


LOCAL  COLOR  IN  SEVILLE        43 

thing  to  do  is  to  ascend  its  tower,  the  famous  Gi- 
ralda,  and  get  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  city  and  its 
surroundings.  A  glance  suffices  to  show  why  Seville 
is  such  a  warm  place.  The  immediate  surroundings 
are  flat  and  marshy,  and  the  encircling  mountains, 
although  they  make  a  fine  picture,  are  too  far  off 
to  benefit  the  city  with  their  breezes.  But,  as  the 
roofs  of  the  houses  are  mostly  flat  and  of  a  Moorish 
character,  the  inhabitants  can,  on  warm  nights,  wrap 
themselves  in  sheets  and  sleep  in  the  open  air.  The 
belfry,  near  the  top  of  the  Giralda,  has  twenty-two 
bells,  of  which  Ford  remarks  that  "  they  are  almost 
treated  as  persons,  being  all  duly  baptized,  before 
they  are  suspended,  with  a  peculiar  oil,  and  they  are 
christened  after  saints."  Nevertheless  they  are  sub- 
jected to  the  undignified  treatment  of  being  tied 
bottom  side  up — a  somewhat  risky  arrangement,  for 
if  one  of  the  ropes  should  break,  a  visitor  standing 
underneath  might  suddenly  find  himself  reduced  to 
the  alternative  of  following  his  head  down  into  the 
street,  or  doing  without  one.  The  Spaniards  have 
a  peculiar  way  of  ringing  their  church  bells.  They 
not  only  ring  them  as  fast  as  fire  bells,  but,  instead 
of  moving  them  simply  to  and  fro,  they  make  them 
turn  complete  somersaults.  The  bell-ringers  have  to 
look  out  for  their  heads,  under  these  circumstances, 
and  I  was  told  that  a  few  years  ago  one  of  them  waa 
fatally  injured. 


44  SPAIN   AND  MOROCCO 

Although  the  Giralda  is  350  feet  in  height,  it  is  so 
easy  to  ascend  that  one  arrives  at  the  top  before  one 
is  aware,  and  without  the  slightest  fatigue  or  neces- 
sity of  pausing.  The  ascent  has  even  been  made 
with  horses,  for  there  are  no  steps,  but  a  series  of 
moderately  inclined  planes  winding  along  the  sides 
of  the  tower — an  arrangement  which  ought  to  be 
adopted  in  other  towers.  It  is  not  till  one  leaves 
Seville,  and  notes  how  the  Cathedral,  with  its  tower, 
looms  up  more  and  more  above  the  houses,  that  one 
realizes  the  height  of  the  Giralda.  In  the  city  itself 
the  streets  are  so  tortuous  and  narrow  that  one  con- 
stantly loses  sight  of  it,  so  that  it  does  not  serve  so 
much  as  a  useful  guide-post  as  one  might  imagine 
and  hope.  Nevertheless,  after  Toledo  and  Cordova, 
some  of  the  streets  of  Seville  appear  neither  narrow 
nor  labyrinthian,  but  almost  modern  and  metropoli- 
tan. The  most  interesting  of  them  is  the  Calle  de 
Sierpes,  which  no  wagon  is  allowed  to  enter,  and 
which  is  lined  with  cafes,  club-houses,  and  elegant 
shops.  Many  of  the  shops  are  semi-Moorish  ;  for 
although  you  do  not  see  a  turbaned  Mohammedan 
squatting  on  his  hind  legs  in  a  small  booth  open  to 
the  street,  where  customers,  without  leaving  the 
street,  bargain  for  the  goods  stored  round  about 
him,  you  do  see  no  end  of  shops  which  are  practically 
in  the  street,  the  whole  front  wall  (consisting  of 
doors)  being  removed  in  the  daytime,  so  that  the 


LOCAL  COLOR  IN  SEVILLE        45 

clerks  can  look  up  and  down  the  street  without  get- 
ting from  behind  the  counters.  To  the  clerks,  no 
less  than  the  customers,  it  is  a  great  boon  to  be  thus 
all  day  long  in  the  open  air  instead  of  being  cooped 
up,  as  elsewhere,  in  close,  hot,  stuffy  rooms.  Addi- 
tional comfort  and  coolness  is  provided  by  stretch- 
ing awnings  across  some  of  the  streets,  so  that  one 
can  walk  comfortably  even  in  the  early  afternoon. 
But  as  this  is  done  only  in  the  principal  streets,  few 
of  the  natives  go  out  at  that  hour.  Everybody  takes 
his  siesta  either  in  the  house  or  in  the  street,  and 
one  has  to  take  care  in  turning  a  corner  not  to 
stumble  across  men,  or  sometimes  even  women,  fast 
asleep  in  a  shady  spot.  Even  the  street-cars,  which 
were  built  a  few  years  ago — by  foreign  enterprise, 
of  course — are  empty  at  that  hour,  though  otherwise 
a  paying  investment.  To  an  American  it  is  difficult 
to  realize  a  city  which  once  had  400,000  inhab- 
itants, and  still  has  135,000,  covering  a  very  large 
territory,  only  just  making  up  its  mind  to  have 
means  of  cheap  and  rapid  transit.  But  time  is  not 
money  in  Spain.  If  it  were,  the  Spaniards  would 
all  be  rich,  for  they  have  plenty  of  it. 

What  surprised  me  most  in  the  streets  of  Seville 
was  that  even  toward  evening  and  at  night  they 
were  by  no  means  as  crowded  as  I  had  been  led  to 
expect,  nor  was  the  evening  promenade  at  all  well 
attended,  except  on  Sunday.  Yet  it  is  the  orthodox 


46  SPAIN  AND   MOEOCCO 

thing  for  tourists  who  come  to  Seville  from  Cordova 
to  contrast  the  bustle  and  animation  of  the  first- 
named  city  with  the  tomb-like  solitude  of  Cordova. 
I  appealed  to  a  resident  Englishman  for  an  explana- 
tion, and  he  said  that  the  writers  had  not  misrepre- 
sented the  state  of  affairs,  but  that  Seville  was  for 
the  moment  in  an  apathetic,  comatose  condition, 
because  quite  recently  two  leading  banks,  contain- 
ing the  savings  of  thousands,  had  failed.  "How- 
ever," he  added,  "the  Andalusian  never  indulges 
long  in  any  feeling,  whether  depressed  or  joyous, 
and  in  a  few  weeks  Seville  will  probably  be  as  gay 
as  ever."  Nevertheless,  various  indications  led  me 
to  believe  that  Seville  will  never  again  be  what  it 
was  in  the  times  of  the  famous  "Barber,"  even 
though  its  commercial  activity  is  said  to  have  been 
greatly  Stimulated  by  the  improvements  in  the 
Guadalquivir  which  have  made  Seville  accessible  to 
the  largest  steamers. 

My  attention  having  been  attracted  by  some  pe- 
culiarly lugubrious  music,  I  followed  it  to  its  source 
and  came  across  a  funeral  procession.  Its  head  was 
formed  by  a  dozen  boys  bearing  long  candles.  Then 
came  the  coffin,  carried  by  four  men  whose  heads 
and  bodies  were  buried  under  the  cloth  which 
covered  the  coffin,  leaving  only  their  legs  visible,  so 
that  at  the  first  moment  I  actually  mistook  the  group 
for  a  huge  animal.  Priests  followed,  arrayed  in 


LOCAL  COLOR  IN  SEVILLE       47 

black  robes  with  red  stripes,  and  the  rear  was 
brought  up  by  the  music,  consisting  of  an  oboe  and 
two  bassoons — a  peculiarly  melancholy  combination 
— accompanying  the  solemn  chant  of  the  priests. 
The  procession  stopped  in  front  of  a  house,  and, 
with  the  bystanders,  formed  a  group  around  the 
coffin,  which  was  opened  and  the  features  of  the 
corpse  once  more  exposed  to  daylight.  The  crowd 
then  dispersed,  and  the  ecclesiastics  returned  to 
their  haunts. 

Half  an  hour  later  I  came  across  a  different  pro- 
cession, but  quite  as  characteristic  of  the  city  and 
the  country.  A  cow,  gayly  decked  with  flowers, 
was  slowly  led  along  the  street  by  a  girl,  the  rear 
being  brought  up  by  a  blind  man  blowing  a  flageo- 
let and  beating  a  drum  incessantly.  A  crowd  of 
children  followed,  of  course,  and  on  inquiry  I  dis- 
covered that  the  cow  was  to  be  raffled  for,  anyone 
paying  a  trifle  and  taking  his  chances.  In  the 
course  of  ten  days  I  saw  several  of  these  processions 
in  Seville.  The  lottery  is,  next  to  bull-fights,  the 
great  passion  of  the  Spaniards. 

The  public  lotteries  are  innumerable  and  on  a 
large  scale.  If  you  sit  in  a  cafe  near  a  window,  you 
will  be  annoyed  every  five  minutes  by  a  man  or 
woman  offering  lottery  tickets.  They  sell  them  at 
cost  price,  but  expect  a  small  gratuity.  As  Span- 
iards, at  least  the  lower  classes,  rarely  read  a  news- 


48  SPAIN  AND   MOEOCCO 

paper,  the  prizes  are  not  printed  in  them,  but  are 
loudly  proclaimed  in  the  street  by  men  who  make  a 
business  of  it,  and  who  also  expect  a  gratuity  if 
they  give  you  welcome  news.  But  perhaps  the 
most  peculiar  thing  about  Spanish  lotteries  is  that 
the  numbers  immediately  preceding  or  following 
the  great  prizes  are  also  winning  numbers.  For 
instance,  in  one  case  where  the  highest  prize  was 
200,000  pesetas,  and  five  others  were  40,000  each,  the 
contiguous  numbers  above  and  below  were  worth 
5,000  each.  This  is  shrewd  philosophy,  for  it  is 
well  known  that  the  bitterest  disappointment  comes 
to  those  who  get  within  one  number  of  winning. 

The  lottery  tickets  are  not  sold  in  cigar-stores,  as 
in  most  other  countries,  but  in  special  shops  which 
are  almost  as  numerous  as  wine  houses.  To  atone 
for  this,  the  cigar-stores  have  a  monopoly  of  a  kind 
which  strikes  every  foreigner  as  by  far  the  oddest 
thing  in  Spain :  the  sale  of  postage-stamps.  You 
cannot  get  a  stamp  at  a  Spanish  post-office  for  love 
or  money.  You  get  it  at  the  nearest  cigar-store, 
where  also  you  will  find  a  letter-box,  and  nowhere 
else  except  at  the  post-office.  A  strange  story  was 
told  me  by  an  English  chaplain  at  Malaga.  Casu- 
ally strolling  into  a  cafe  one  day,  he  noticed  a  num- 
ber of  letters  stuck  upon  the  wall,  and  to  his  su- 
preme astonishment  found  that  several  of  them  were 
for  him.  On  investigating  the  matter,  he  discov- 


LOCAL  COLOR  IN  SEVILLE        49 

ered  that  a  postal  clerk  had  entered  into  an  ar- 
rangement with  the  cafetier  to  send  him  letters  ad- 
dressed to  foreigners,  the  understanding  being  that 
the  latter  probably  would  pay  him  a  fee  for  his  trou- 
ble, or,  at  any  rate,  frequent  the  cafe* !  The  chaplain 
referred  the  matter  to  the  Consul,  and  the  little 
game  was  stopped.  Among  the  letters  in  the  cafe* 
were  several  addressed  to  persons  known  to  the 
chaplain,  who  had  left  weeks  before.  The  moral 
would  seem  to  be,  don't  address  your  letters  poste 
restante,  but  send  them  to  the  Consul  or  the  banker 
named  in  your  letter  of  credit. 

Kegistered  letters  appear  to  be  safe,  on  the  other 
hand,  but  the  extraordinary  precautions  taken  to 
make  them  safe  appear  like  an  accusation  of  gen- 
eral dishonesty.  If  you  receive  a  registered  letter, 
you  have  to  return  the  envelope  with  the  signature 
of  your  receipt.  This  is  simple  enough.  The  diffi- 
culty lies  in  knowing  how  to  send  off  a  registered 
letter.  I  shall  never  forget  my  first  experience  in 
that  line.  When  I  handed  in  my  letter  it  was  re- 
turned, with  the  remark  that  it  must  be  sealed. 
I  took  it  to  a  cigar-store  and  had  a  seal  put  on  it, 
but  again  it  was  handed  back.  "  There  must  be 
five  seals,"  said  the  clerk.  Not  wishing  to  expose 
my  ignorance  to  the  black-eyed  beauty  in  the  cigar- 
store,  I  went  to  a  stationer's  and  bought  a  bar  of 
sealing-wax,  but,  having  no  stamp,  used  a  coin  in- 
4 


60  SPAIN  AND   MOKOCCO 

stead.  Once  more  the  letter  was  returned:  "The 
stamps  on  the  sealing-wax  must  be  all  the  same." 
In  despair  I  took  it  back  to  the  black-eyed  girl 
and  explained  my  difficulties.  She  put  on  the  five 
seals,  and  then  at  last  the  letter  was  accepted.  The 
most  absurd  part  of  the  story  is,  that  although  Sev- 
ille swarms  with  foreigners  in  spring,  there  are  no 
directions  regarding  this  matter  posted  up  any- 
where. Indeed,  not  even  the  time  (three  or  four 
hours  a  day)  when  the  post-office  is  open,  is  an- 
nounced at  the  window.  Obviously,  the  Spaniards 
are  not  much  in  need  of  postal  facilities,  and  for 
a  very  good  reason,  since  not  much  more  than 
twenty-five  per  cent,  of  the  population  can  write 
and  read. 

However,  one  can  afford  to  put  up  with  such  little 
annoyances  at  Seville,  which  richly  compensates  for 
them  by  its  novel  sights  and  inexhaustible  art  treas- 
ures. Seville  is  a  city  of  historic  contrasts.  Hav- 
ing been  successively  a  Phcenician,  Greek,  Roman, 
Gothic,  Moorish,  and  Catholic  city,  it  preserves 
traces  and  monuments  of  almost  all  these  dynasties. 
At  the  suburb  Italica,  the  birthplace  of  three  Roman 
emperors,  the  ruins  of  an  ancient  amphitheatre,  with 
the  various  subterranean  divisions  for  the  gladiators 
and  the  wild  beasts,  may  still  be  seen.  The  city 
itself  is  Moorish  in  the  arrangement  of  the  streets 
and  the  houses,  and  the  Alcazar  is  the  best  pre- 


LOCAL  COLOK  IN  SEVILLE       51 

served  specimen  of  Moorish  architecture  in  Spain. 
Adjoining  it  is  the  Christian  Cathedral.  In  the 
streets  the  mediaeval  donkey  grazes  the  modern 
horse-car.  In  the  windows  of  the  book-stores  the 
latest  French  novels,  and  photographs  of  pictures 
from  the  last  Salon,  are  exposed  side  by  side  with 
the  omnipresent  Murillos ;  and  at  the  hotel  sits  an 
Englishman  in  a  Moorish  patio  reading  the  latest 
number  of  the  London  Times.  These  Moorish 
patios  are,  of  all  the  sights  in  Seville,  the  most  in- 
teresting. One  finds  imperfect  specimens  of  them 
further  north,  at  Cordova  and  even  Toledo,  and 
not  a  few  also  at  Malaga  and  Granada,  and  else- 
where, but  Seville  is  the  place  where  the  delightful 
Moorish  courtyard  is  seen  at  its  best.  There  are 
patios  of  all  sizes  and  degrees  of  splendor,  but 
always  patios,  in  every  house,  and  one  never  tires 
of  peeping  into  them  on  walking  along  the  streets. 
This  is  easily  done,  for  even  if  the  iron  gate  which 
leads  to  the  patio  is  not  open,  one  can  look  through 
the  interstices  left  by  its  elegantly  wrought  and 
painted  configurations.  In  the  finest  of  these  square 
courtyards  the  floor  is  of  marble,  and  the  walls  in- 
laid with  elegant  mosaic.  In  the  centre  is  a  flower- 
plot,  or  a  fountain  surrounded  with  flowers,  or  stat- 
uary. Marble  columns  on  each  side  support  the 
inside  projection  of  the  upper  story,  which  is  some 
times  provided  with  windows,  while  the  patio  itself 


52  SPAIN  AND  MOROCCO 

is  open  above  to  the  sky  at  night,  and  covered  in 
the  daytime  with  an  awning,  so  that  it  serves  at  all 
hours  as  a  refrigerator  for  the  house  and  its  inhab- 
itants. Here  the  Sevillans  hold  their  morning  and 
afternoon  receptions,  and  here  they  breathe  the  fresh 
air,  which  accounts  for  the  plump  figures  and  the 
sparkling  eyes  of  the  women.  On  warm  afternoons 
it  is  eight  to  ten  degrees  cooler  in  the  patio  and 
the  adjoining  rooms  than  in  the  upper  story  of  the 
house  ;  a  fact  which  tourists  will  do  well  to  remem- 
ber. I  see  no  reason  why  these  patios  should  not 
be  universally  introduced  in  warm  climates,  and  I 
believe  they  will  be  as  soon  as  some  one  sets  the 
fashion.  I  met  a  California  millionaire  who  vowed 
he  was  going  to  build  a  house  in  the  Moorish  style, 
and  who  was  busy  at  the  time  getting  the  prices  of 
some  elegant  tiles,  which  he  pronounced  very  cheap. 
By  far  the  most  sumptuous  patios  are  of  course 
to  be  found  in  the  Alcazar.  I  must  confess  that  I 
was  more  impressed  and  thrilled  by  the  marvels  of 
this  palace  than  subsequently  by  the  Alhambra  it- 
self, for  the  simple  reason  that  the  Alcazar,  having 
BO  long  been  used  as  a  royal  residence,  is  in  a  better 
state  of  preservation.  The  charms  of  this  palace  are 
bewildering,  and  can  no  more  be  described  in  words 
than  the  love  duo  from  "Tristan  und  Isolde."  I 
always  thought  Schelling's  comparison  of  archi- 
tecture to  "frozen  music"  rather  far-fetched,  un- 


LOCAL  COLOR  IN  SEVILLE       53 

til  the  moment  I  saw  this  Alcazar.  Here,  as  in  an 
opera,  one  can  yield  himself  merely  to  the  general 
impression  of  the  situation,  or  else  one  can  pursue 
the  details  attentively,  and  ever  discover  new  beau- 
ties and  unsuspected  relationships.  The  variety  of 
patterns  on  the  walls  and  ceilings  is  incredible,  and 
more  than  kaleidoscopic.  There  are  geometric  fig- 
ures, stars,  leaves,  flowers,  lions,  birds,  and  creat- 
ures half  fish,  half  plant,  besides  Arabic  letters  and 
proverbs,  and  all  these  as  subtly  interwoven  and 
endlessly  varied  as  the  harmonies  in  a  modern 
orchestral  score.  And  the  instrumentation  of  all 
this — the  coloring — is  truly  Wagnerian.  No  two 
rooms  are  alike,  a  different  tint  prevailing  in  each — 
red  in  one,  blue,  green,  or  gold  in  others.  And 
most  beautiful  of  all  are  the  black  squares,  whose 
glazed  surface  is  iridescent,  reflecting  all  the  colors 
of  the  rainbow.  At  the  moment  I  felt  as  if  I  would 
rather  be  the  creator  or  owner  of  this  building  than 
of  all  the  Gothic  cathedrals  I  had  ever  seen.  A 
delightful  solitude  reigns  throughout  the  Alcazar. 
I  saw  no  living  being  except  an  artist  copying  a  ceil- 
ing. The  wind  was  whistling  dismally  through  the 
empty  spaces,  and  I  could  not  help  thinking  how 
these  sounds,  so  romantic  to  a  modern  visitor,  must 
have  harassed  and  haunted  Don  Pedro  the  Cruel 
after  he  had  caused  his  brother  to  be  murdered  in 
one  of  these  apartments. 


54  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

The  Sevillans  are  obviously  proud  of  their  Moor- 
ish patios  and  their  belongings,  for  they  still  build 
their  new  houses  in  the  same  style.  The  leading 
hotel  has  two  fine  patios,  with  a  fish-pond,  flowers, 
and  fountain,  where  one  can  always  find  a  comfort- 
able temperature.  At  night  the  perfume  in  this 
patio  is  so  rich  and  overpowering  that  one  almost 
hesitates  to  admit  the  air  from  it  into  one's  bed- 
room. But  it  must  be  done,  for  to  open  the  win- 
dow looking  on  the  street  is  to  bid  good-by  to  all 
chances  of  sleep,  not  only  on  account  of  the  belated 
revellers  who  wend  their  way  home  noisily  at  in- 
tervals till  four  or  five  o'clock,  but  chiefly  on  account 
of  the  watchman,  or  sereno.  This  lugubrious  in- 
dividual, armed  with  a  spear  and  a  lantern,  peram- 
bulates the  streets  all  night  long,  endowed  with  a 
threefold  function,  his  first  duty  being  to  preserve 
order,  his  second  to  open  doors,  his  third  to  sing 
out  the  hour  of  the  night.  As  in  Berlin,  so  in 
Spanish  cities,  persons  living  in  apnrtment-houses 
carry  no  street-door  keys,  but  are  dependent  at  night 
for  admission  on  the  watchman,  who  appears  with  his 
bunch  of  keys  and  unlocks  the  door,  after  he  has 
heard  them  yell  "  Sereno  "  at  the  top  of  their  voice. 
This  is  bad  enough,  but  his  song  is  worse.  Every 
half-hour  he  sings  his  Ave  Maria  at  every  corner, 
fortissimo,  winding  up  by  stating  the  condition  of 
the  weather.  As  this  is  almost  always  "  serene  "  in 


LOCAL  COLOR  IN  SEVILLE        55 

Spain,  his  name  is  plausibly  accounted  for.  Possibly 
an  audacious  philologist  might  also  trace  the  word 
serenade  to  this  source. 

Notwithstanding  the  sereno  nuisance,  I  prolonged 
my  stay  in  Seville  to  ten  days  in  order  to  see  what  is 
considered  its  most  interesting  festival,  the  Corpus 
Christi  procession.  Great  preparations  are  made 
for  this,  and  thousands  flock  to  see  it  from  the 
country  and  neighboring  towns.  Five  days  before 
the  great  day,  workmen  began  to  put  awnings  over 
all  the  streets  and  squares  along  which  the  proces- 
sion was  to  pass,  and  chairs  were  placed  in  every 
available  corner,  with  flowers  in  the  background. 
In  the  cathedral  the  columns  were  wrapped  in  gor- 
geous velvet  cloths,  and  in  every  part  of  the  town, 
even  in  the  remotest  suburbs,  women  and  children 
were  busy  the  day  before  the  festival  in  sweeping  the 
streets  clean.  The  procession  itself  was  hardly 
worth  seeing,  its  principal  feature  being  a  number 
of  images  of  saints  carried  along  by  priests  on  their 
shoulders.  Much  more  interesting  was  it,  after  see- 
ing the  slow  procession,  to  get  ahead  of  it  some 
distance  and  observe  the  Andalusians,  in  all  their 
glory,  who  lined  the  whole  way,  sitting  on  rows  of 
chairs  on  both  sides,  and  occupying  all  the  windows 
and  balconies,  some  of  which  were  gayly  draped  like 
opera  boxes.  It  was  a  beauty  show  such  as  I  had 
never  before  seen  ;  and  hardly  less  interesting  was 


56  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

the  sight  of  the  soldiers  who  were  placed  along  the 
whole  route  in  two  lines,  either  on  foot  or  mounted 
on  Andalusian  steeds,  proud  as  their  masters  and 
graceful  as  the  senoritas  who  looked  on  them  with 
their  big  black  eyes. 

Before  the  procession  had  formed  I  witnessed 
the  strangest  incident  of  the  Festival — the  ballet 
in  the  Cathedral.  This  was  not  so  startling  as  its 
name  implies.  A  dozen  beautiful  boys  went  through 
various  simple  evolutions,  singing  an  air  which 
sounded  like  a  Mozart  minuet,  and  accompanied  by 
flutes  and  violins.  Twice,  in  the  concluding  meas- 
ures, the  castanets  were  used,  and  these,  associated 
with  dance  halls,  did  have  an  odd  effect  in  the  echo- 
ing cathedral.  The  musical  effect  of  the  perform- 
ance was  delicious,  and  none  but  the  most  bigoted 
could  have  taken  offence  at  the  dancing,  which  was, 
after  all,  but  a  slight  exaggeration  of  the  proces- 
sions that  can  be  witnessed  in  other  cathedrals. 

In  the  evening  another  and  quite  unexpected 
musical  treat  awaited  me,  which  was  also  a  delight- 
ful bit  of  local  color.  As  we  were  at  dinner  at  the 
Hotel  de  Madrid,  enter  suddenly  a  dozen  students 
in  the  old-fashioned  Salamanca  costume,  with  pict- 
uresque cloaks  and  hats.  They  marched  around 
the  table  twice,  playing  a  gay  march,  and  then  took 
seats  arranged  for  them  on  one  side,  where  they 
played  for  us  over  an  hour.  The  band  comprised 


LOCAL  COLOR  IN  SEVILLE       57 

violins,  flutes,  a  'cello,  tambourine,  and  several 
guitars,  and  the  effect  was  very  Spanish  and  very 
enjoyable.  When  dessert  came  on  the  table  they 
marched  out  again,  and  subsequently  played  another 
hour  in  the  picturesque  patio,  being  assisted  by  a 
lovely  young  girl,  who  played  the  castanets  and 
danced  with  bewitching  grace.  And,  strange  to 
say,  no  collection  was  taken  up.  The  host  had  evi- 
dently arranged  all  this  as  a  treat  for  his  guests. 
Was  there  ever  host  so  generous  ?  After  all,  Spain 
remains  the  land  of  romance. 


SHERRYLAND  AND  CADIZ 

The  "Great  River. "—Grazing  Bulls.— Shade  a  Luxury.— 
Cactus  Fences. — A  Cordial  Welcome. — Miles  of  Sherry 
Barrels. — Spanish  Wine  and  German  Alcohol. — In  the 
Marshes. — Pyramids  of  Salt. — The  Spanish  Venice. — 
Seven  Miles  at  Sea. — White  and  Blue.— Poor  Food.— 
Smugglers  and  Plundering  Officials.  — The  Spanish  Char- 
acter. 

IN  going  from  Seville  to  Cadiz,  tourists  have  the 
choice  between  rail  and  river.  A  careless  perusal  of 
De  Amicis's  lively  description  of  his  journey  down 
the  Guadalquivir  might  induce  one  to  try  the  steam- 
boat ;  but  on  closer  examination  it  becomes  ap- 
parent that  De  Amicis  derived  less  amusement  from 
the  river  scenery  than  from  a  company  of  Italian 
comedians  who  happened  to  be  aboard.  Moreover, 
the  well-posted  Ford  admits  that  an  actual  ac- 
quaintance with  the  far-famed  Guadalquivir  dispels 
any  illusion  which  the  native  poets  have  conjured 
up:  "This  'pellucid  river*  is  in  sober  reality  as 
dull  and  dirty  as  the  Thames  at  Sheerness.  The 
turbid  stream  slowly  eats  its  way  through  an  alluvial 
level  given  up  to  herds  of  cattle  and  aquatic  fowls  ,* 


SHERRYLAND   AND   CADIZ  59 

nothing  can  be  more  dreary  ;  white  sails  occasionally 
enliven  the  silent  waters,  but  no  villages  cheer  the 
desert  steppes."  At  Seville  itself  nothing  appears 
more  uninviting  than  this  narrow,  dirty,  yellow 
stream,  which  both  Moors  and  gypsies  united  in 
calling  "  the  great  river  " — a  name  which  it  might 
have  better  deserved  in  the  Eoman  period,  when 
Spain  had  more  forests  and  this  river  was  navigable 
as  far  as  Cordova.  Under  these  circumstances,  I  re- 
solved to  follow  the  implied  advice  of  the  practical 
Englishman  rather  than  that  of  the  imaginative 
Italian,  and  took  the  railway ;  nor  did  I  regret  it,  for, 
although  there  are  neither  forests  nor  mountains 
between  Seville  and  Cadiz,  there  is  more  to  see  that 
is  novel  than  between  any  other  two  Spanish  cities. 
The  immediate  surroundings  of  Seville  are  green 
with  gardens  and  vineyards,  and  olive  and  orange 
orchards.  But  the  higher  vegetation  soon  disappears, 
and  the  ground  becomes  level  and  marshy.  Here, 
then,  are  bred  those  huge  mosquitoes  which  pester 
one  so  in  Seville,  and  which  would  win  the  prize  in 
a  musical  and  knightly  contest  with  their  Jersey  and 
Long  Island  cousins.  Still,  there  is  plenty  of  grass, 
and  every  ten  minutes  may  be  seen  a  flock  of  sheep, 
or  herds  of  cattle  and  horses.  Here  the  Andalusian 
bull  grazes  peacefully,  without  dreaming  of  molest- 
ing the  poor  horses  not  far  away.  He  is,  in  fact, 
ordinarily  a  harmless  enough  animal,  and  often,  in- 


60  SPAIN   AND  MOROCCO 

deed,  has  to  be  tormented  with  sharp  sticks  and 
acids  before  he  gets  up  enough  ferocity  to  go  into 
the  ring  in  becoming  style.  I  could  not  help  think- 
ing that  these  animals  must  suffer  from  the  fierce 
sun  and  the  sultry  evaporations  from  the  marshy 
soils  pn  summer  afternoons.  As  far  as  the  eye  can 
reach,  there  is  not  a  tree,  nor  even  a  brush  to  afford 
any  shade.  I  now  began  to  understand  why  the 
peasants,  in  coming  to  Seville  or  resting  anywhere, 
take  no  pains  to  put  their  donkeys  in  the  shade, 
but  leave  them  in  the  broiling  sun.  It  seemed 
cruel,  but  those  animals,  bred  in  the  treeless  plains, 
obviously  do  not  know  what  shade  is,  and  might 
possibly  shy  at  it  the  first  time.  Some  of  them, 
perhaps,  might  have  come  near  one  of  those  wooden 
boxes,  ten  feet  high  and  five  or  six  in  width,  which 
are  the  homes  of  the  solitary  men  placed  along  the 
line  of  the  railway  at  intervals.  No  fences  are  to 
be  seen  anywhere,  but  a  hedge  of  cactus  follows  the 
road  on  both  sides,  its  object  being  apparently  to 
prevent  the  cattle  from  getting  on  the  track.  These 
hedgerows  of  prickly  pear,  with  their  yellow  flowers, 
make  lovely  fences,  nor  do  they,  like  other  fences, 
need  any  spikes  and  broken  glass  on  the  top  to  pre- 
vent small  boys  from  climbing  over  them.  They  are 
quite  able  to  take  care  of  themselves. 

For  miles  and  miles  these  are  the  only  scenic 
features,  excepting  an  occasional  straw  hut,  a  pool 


SHERRYLAND  AND   CADIZ  61 

of  stagnant  water,  or  a  wheat  field  which  would 
seem  rather  big  to  one  who  has  never  been  in 
our  Western  States.  When  the  train  stopped  at  the 
first  station,  everybody  rushed  to  the  windows,  at- 
tracted by  an  extraordinary  chaos  of  vociferation.  I 
thought  an  accident  had  happened,  but  the  mystery 
was  soon  explained.  Our  train  was  filled  with 
soldiers  returning  home,  and  at  every  stopping- 
place  their  relatives  had  assembled  to  receive  them. 
To  judge  by  the  truly  southern  warmth  of  the  re- 
ceptions, they  must  have  been  absent  a  long  time, 
for  the  mothers  actually  shrieked  with  delight. 
Other  nations  may  be  equally  affectionate,  but  cer- 
tainly they  give  no  such  evidence  of  it  in  public  as 
these  Spanish  villagers  and  peasants  did.  Fathers, 
mothers,  sisters,  cousins,  aunts,  and  sweethearts 
fairly  fought  for  the  soldiers  as  soon  as  they  had 
stepped  off  the  cars,  and  almost  tore  their  uniforms 
from  their  bodies  in  their  eagerness  to  get  the  first 
kiss  and  the  first  embrace.  Finally,  as  the  train 
moved  away,  they  were  seen  dragging  their  hero 
homeward,  the  father's  arm  round  the  neck,  the 
mother's  round  the  waist,  and  the  younger  women 
carrying  off  his  baggage  triumphantly.  The  same 
scenes  were  enacted  at  the  other  stations,  and  I  thus 
had  an  opportunity  of  seeing  these  country  people 
such  as  one  ordinarily  gets  only  at  the  religious 
festivals. 


62  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

As  we  approached  Jerez,  the  home  of  the  wine 
whose  name  the  English  have  corrupted  into  Sherry, 
because  that  is  easier  to  pronounce  than  Hdreth,  the 
landscape,  by  a  curious  coincidence,  became  some- 
what rolling,  as  in  England,  though  without  Eng- 
land's chief  ornament — a  treeless  England.  The 
vineyards  immediately  about  Jerez  are,  however, 
flat,  and  I  was  told  that  the  vines  need  no  irriga- 
tion. I  stopped  over  between  two  trains  in  order 
to  see  one  or  two  of  the  famous  bodegas,  which  are 
the  only  remarkable  sights  in  this  city  of  almost 
sixty  thousand  inhabitants,  many  of  whom  are  Eng- 
lish or  semi-English.  The  extraordinary  ignorance 
of  the  ordinary  Spaniard  may  be  inferred  from  the 
fact  that  I  had  to  ask  three  persons  before  I  suc- 
ceeded in  being  directed  to  the  largest  of  these 
wine-firms — the  industry  to  which  Jerez  owes  its 
name  and  prosperity !  In  this  establishment  seven 
hundred  workmen  are  employed  at  some  seasons, 
everything  being  made  on  the  premises,  including 
the  barrels.  The  wood  for  these  barrels,  however, 
has  to  be  imported  from  America.  Spain  has  only 
a  quarter  as  much  forest  as  Prussia,  and  less  than 
half  as  much  as  Italy  or  France,  and  this  scarcity  of 
wood  has  for  a  long  time  seriously  injured  the  or- 
dinary Spanish  wine  trade,  for  the  smaller  wine- 
growers, being  unable  to  purchase  expensive  casks, 
have  been  obliged  to  keep  their  wine  in  pig-skins, 


SHERRYLAND   AND   CADIZ  63 

which,  with  the  pitch  that  is  used  to  stop  up  cracks, 
gives  it  such  a  disagreeable  flavor  that,  although  the 
wine  is  intrinsically  good — especially  the  Yal  de 
Penas — one  can  hardly  drink  it  until  one  has  be- 
come reconciled  to  that  gastronomic  dissonance. 

Mr.  E.  E.  Hale  remarks  in  his  "Seven  Spanish 
Cities,"  that  "  the  guide-books  and  other  superficial 
critics  say  that  if  more  care  were  taken,  the  rough 
Spanish  vin  da  pays  might  be  much  better  than  it  is. 
But  for  me,  I  take  such  criticisms  with  a  good  deal 
of  caution.  I  think  the  people  on  the  ground  are 
apt  to  understand  their  own  business  better  than 
travellers  do."  But  the  fact  is  that  they  do  not,  as 
a  rule,  understand  their  business,  although  lately 
some  of  the  larger  growers  have  followed  the  exam- 
ple of  foreigners,  who  came  and  made  excellent 
wines  in  Spain  by  excluding  unripe  and  inferior 
berries  and  discarding  the  pig-skins.  The  ordinary 
Spaniard  does  not  object  to  the  pitch  flavor  of  his 
vin  ordinaire,  simply  because  his  gastronomic  taste 
is  not  educated.  As  the  famous  Spanish  novelist, 
Mateo  Aleman,  remarked  two  centuries  and  a  half 
ago,  these  people  "eat  everything,  as  it  were,  with 
a  garlic-tooth.  There  are  but  few  of  them  in 
whom  the  senses  arrive  at  any  perfection.  .  .  . 
They  are  like  dogs  that  devour  the  meat  without 
tasting  ;  or  like  the  ostrich,  that  can  swallow  a  red- 
hot  horse-shoe."  It  is  the  same  with  olive-oil  as 


64  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

with  wine.  An  English  merchant  at  Seville  told  me 
that  Spanish  olive-oil  would  be  the  best  in  the  world 
if  they  knew  how  to  make  it.  As  it  is,  it  has,  like 
the  ordinary  wine,  such  a  disagreeable  flavor  that 
most  of  it  is  unfit  to  export,  and  at  the  best  restau- 
rants in  Spain  a  bottle  of  French  olive-oil  is  kept  os- 
tentatiously on  the  table  for  fastidious  customers. 
Obviously,  education  would  be  wealth  to  the  Span- 
iards. But  they  lack  not  only  knowledge  but  capi- 
tal and  enterprise,  and  the  result  is  that  foreigners 
are  at  present  invading  Spain  en  masse,  and  work- 
ing the  rich  mines  in  the  mountains  and  the  olive- 
groves  and  vineyards. 

To  return  for  a  moment  to  sherry — that  wine 
does  not  suffer  from  slovenly  manufacture  and  pig- 
skin storage.  It  has  another  enemy,  more  serious 
even  than  ignorance,  and  that  is  adulteration. 
There  has  never  been  a  better  illustration  of  the 
fact  that  honesty  is  the  best  policy — in  the  long  run 
— than  the  fate  of  the  sherry  industry.  Everybody 
knows  what  fortunes  have  been  made  in  sherry ; 
but  those  times  seem  to  be  past.  Mr.  Ingraham, 
formerly  American  Consul  at  Cadiz,  printed  in 
one  of  his  reports  the  translation  of  a  letter  written 
by  the  Mayor  of  Jerez  to  the  Civil  Governor  of  the 
province  of  Cadiz.  The  Mayor  complains  that  the 
condition  of  the  wine  trade  in  Jerez  could  not  be 
more  deplorable  than  it  is.  Capital  bears  no  inter- 


SHERRYLAND   AND   CADIZ  65 

est,  the  vineyards  have  no  value,  and  the  town  has 
become  poor.  Twenty  years  ago  eighty  to  ninety 
francs  were  paid  per  hectolitre,  now  only  thirteen  to 
fourteen.  The  key  to  the  change  thus  deplored  by 
the  Mayor  lies  in  the  fact  that  some  firms  began  to 
import  German  alcohol,  and  to  manufacture  a  vile, 
cheap  compound,  which  has  injured  the  popularity 
of  the  wine  and  limited  the  sale  of  genuine  sherry, 
which  cannot  be  sold  at  any  such  price.  Good 
sherry  is  still  to  be  had — I  tasted  some  excellent 
samples — but  there  is  little  market  for  it.  The  ex- 
tent to  which  the  adulteration  of  Spanish  wine  is 
carried  on  may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  twelve 
million  dollars'  worth  of  German  alcohol  (made  of 
potatoes  and  beets)  is  imported  into  Spain  annually, 
of  which  Cadiz  alone  (the  port  of  Jerez)  got  $880,- 
000  in  1886  !  Thus  the  change  from  honest  sherry 
to  the  rank  compound  of  villainous  stuffs  usually 
served  up  under  that  name  has  benefited  no  one 
but  the  German  distillers.  It  would  seem  as  if  a 
remedy  for  this  state  of  affairs  might  be  found. 

After  leaving  Jerez,  with  its  (literally)  miles  of 
sherry  barrels  piled  up  in  rows  like  cannon-balls,  the 
proximity  of  the  seacoast  soon  makes  itself  evident 
in  the  saline  marshes  and  the  breezes  redolent  of 
salt  water  and  seaweeds.  At  Seville  one  sees  at 
almost  every  street  corner  a  man  or  woman  with 
a  basket  filled  with  moderately  sized  lobster-like 
5 


66  SPAIK  AND  MOROCCO 

claws,  which  are  eaten  with  great  avidity  by  the 
Spaniards  of  all  classes.  And  no  wonder,  for  they 
are  excellent — much  better  than  real  lobsters,  and 
almost  as  delicate  in  flavor  as  the  "  Oder  Krebse  " 
one  gets  in  Berlin,  or  the  Oregon  crawfish.  I  often 
wondered  what  became  of  the  bodies  of  these  can- 
grejos,  but  could  not  find  anything  about  them  in 
the  guide-books.  But  everything  in  its  place  !  In 
speaking  of  the  salt  marshes,  just  referred  to,  Ford 
says :  "In  these  marshes  and  along  the  coast  breed 
innumerable  small  crabs,  cangrejos,  whose  fore-claws 
are  delicious  and  form  titbits  for  the  Andalusian 
ichthyophile.  These  bocas  de  la  Ixla  are  torn  off 
from  the  living  animal,  who  is  then  turned  adrift 
that  the  claws  may  grow  again."  Here  is  another 
opening  for  a  Spanish  Henry  Bergh.  Still,  it  is  a 
nice  question  of  casuistry  whether  the  cangrejos 
would  rather  be  robbed  of  their  claws  only,  or  be 
killed.  It  would  doubtless  be  a  lingering  death, 
involving  more  suffering  than  the  tearing  out  of  the 
claws,  and  with  this  sophistry  the  epicure  may  ease 
his  conscience. 

Presently,  a  unique  sight  meets  the  eye  of  the 
tourist.  As  far  as  the  eye  can  reach  the  landscape  is 
picturesquely  studded  with  small,  snow-white  pyra- 
mids. Around  each  pyramid  the  ground  is  divided 
into  square  plots,  like  flower-beds,  but  dug  out  and 
filled  with  salt  water,  which  is  conducted  thither  by 


SHERRYLAND   AND   CADIZ  67 

numerous  narrow  canals.  That  explains  the  mys- 
tery. The  pyramids  are  solid  salt,  and  the  shallow 
beds  are  the  pans  in  which  the  salt  water  evaporates. 
The  salt  crystallizes  first  along  the  edges  of  the 
pans,  and  looks  very  pretty — like  a  border  of  fresh- 
fallen  snow.  At  Cadiz  I  was  informed  that  ordi- 
narily it  takes  ten  or  twelve  days  for  one  of  these 
pans  to  evaporate,  but  when  the  African  wind  called 
the  levanter  blows,  three  or  four  days  suffice.  As 
the  dry,  blustering  levanter  is  greatly  disliked  in 
Cadiz,  we  have  here  a  literal  confirmation  of  the 
saying  that  it  is  an  ill  wind  that  blows  no  one  good. 
The  importance  and  extent  of  this  salt  industry 
may  be  inferred  from  the  fact  that  it  supports  a 
whole  town  of  27,000  souls,  San  Fernando,  ten  miles 
from  Cadiz. 

And  now,  on  approaching  "  fair  Cadiz,  rising  o'er 
the  dark  blue  sea,"  it  is  absolutely  incumbent  on 
the  tourist  to  take  his  eye  away  from  the  window 
and  turn  it  inward — to  indulge  in  historical  remin- 
iscences and  enjoy  the  thrills  of  archaic  emotion. 
For  is  he  not  coming  to  a  city  which  was  founded 
by  Hercules  himself,  eleven  hundred  years  before 
Christ,  and  which  is,  therefore,  half  as  old  as  the 
world  itself,  according  to  the  Hebrew  legends  ? — a 
city  which  supplied  the  ancient  Roman  epicures  and 
amusement-seekers  with  salt-fish  and  dancing-girls  ; 
to  which  the  ancient  philosophers  resorted  to  study 


68  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

the  curious  phenomena  of  the  tides,  and  which  was 
long  considered  the  end  of  the  world. 

It  seems  strange  that  it  never  occurred  to  anyone 
— so  far  as  I  know — to  call  Cadiz  the  Spanish  Ven- 
ice. Like  Venice,  it  lies  at  sea — seven  miles  at  sea  ; 
and  had  the  inhabitants  of  Cadiz  wished  it,  they 
might  easily  have  had  canals  instead  of  streets,  for 
most  of  the  streets  begin  and  end  at  the  ocean. 
Coming  straight  from  the  ultra-Moorish  Seville, 
with  its  narrow,  winding  streets,  one  finds  it  strange 
that  the  neighboring  Cadiz,  which  also  belonged  to 
the  Moors  more  than  five  hundred  years,  should 
have  so  much  wider  and  straighter  streets,  and  few 
or  no  patios  or  other  Moorish  characteristics.  The 
explanation  lies  in  the  fact  that  almost  the  whole 
town  was  newly  laid  out  and  built  after  the  English 
bombardment  in  1596.  Cadiz  being  practically  on 
an  island,  is  much  cooler  than  Seville — indeed, 
many  Seville  families  come  here  to  spend  the  sum- 
mer— so  that  Moorish  patios  are  not  essential  for 
comfort ;  and  one  might  say  that  their  places  are 
taken  by  the  curious  miradores,  or  turrets  on  the 
tops  of  the  houses,  whence  the  natives  can  enjoy 
the  sea-breezes  and  a  magnificent  view  at  the  same 
time.  The  blue  of  the  sky  and  the  sea  is  no  deeper 
at  Cadiz  than  at  Malaga  or  at  Marseilles,  and  the 
reason,  therefore,  why  it  is  always  so  much  empha- 
sized in  descriptions  of  Cadiz  is  because  it  obtrudes 


SHEREYLAND   AND   CADIZ  69 

itself  so  much  more  vividly  than  elsewhere,  owing  to 
the  entire  absence  of  smoke  in  the  air,  and  to  the 
glaring  white  of  the  houses,  which  are  constantly 
being  whitewashed.  It  is  difficult  to  understand 
the  motive  of  this  eternal,  monotonous  whitewash- 
ing in  Spain.  Religious  fanaticism  probably  had 
something  to  do  with  it — the  desire  to  hide  and  des- 
troy the  Moorish  ornaments  on  the  buildings.  Or 
else  the  habit  originated  in  the  mistaken  notion  that 
because  black  absorbs  the  heat  of  the  sun,  white 
ought  to  afford  a  grateful  relief.  No  doubt  white  is 
cool,  but  in  large  masses  it  is  the  most  dazzling  and 
intolerable  of  all  hues.  If  snow  ever  fell  in  south- 
ern Spain,  the  inhabitants  might  be  able  to  infer 
from  the  phenomenon  of  snow-blindness  that  the 
glare  of  white  houses  is  very  injurious  to  the  eyes  ; 
or,  if  they  were  better  educated,  the  same  conclu- 
sion would  be  forced  on  them  by  the  remarkable 
frequency  of  weakness  or  diseases  of  the  eye.  For- 
eigners, too,  at  Cadiz,  are  very  apt  to  suffer  from 
headache,  which  can  be  readily  traced  to  the  nerves 
of  the  eye.  Why  not  "  paint  the  town " — if  not 
"red,"  at  any  rate  a  sombre  blue  or  green?  One 
never  hears  of  such  a  thing  as  "grass-blindness." 
But  perhaps  yellow,  the  complementary  color  of  the 
circumambient  blue,  would  be  the  most  poetic  tint 
for  Cadiz. 

It  is  the   custom  of  tourists  to  hurry  through 


70  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

Cadiz,  making  it  a  mere  station  on  their  way  to 
Gibraltar  or  Tangier.  From  the  mere  sightseer's 
point  of  view  this  may  be  justifiable,  for  the  cathe- 
dral is  not  a  remarkable  specimen  of  architecture, 
and  of  works  of  art  there  is  only  one  that  engages 
the  attention  of  tourists — the  last  Murillo,  in  the 
former  convent  of  San  Francisco,  in  painting  which 
the  artist  fell  from  the  scaffolding  and  sustained 
fatal  injuries.  It  must  also  be  admitted  that  Cadiz 
is  one  of  the  noisiest  cities  in  Spain  at  all  hours  of 
the  day  and  night  except  between  one  and  five  A.M., 
the  street-criers  atoning  by  their  abundance  and 
loudness  for  the  absence  of  the  sereno's  song,  which 
has  been  suppressed,  notwithstanding  the  opposition 
of  the  lower  classes,  who  have  no  clocks  to  tell  them 
the  hour  of  the  night.  But,  aside  from  these  draw- 
backs, Cadiz  is  one  of  the  pleasantest  places  in  Spain 
to  spend  a  week  in.  It  is  a  very  clean  city,  the  beg- 
gar nuisance  hardly  exists,  the  society  is  the  most 
cultivated  in  Spain  outside  of  Madrid  and  Barce- 
lona, the  women  the  most  graceful  in  Andalusia,  and 
the  Alameda,  where  everybody  promenades  in  the 
evening,  the  coolest  and  the  finest  in  Spain,  com- 
manding lovely  views  of  the  ocean,  which  is  by  no 
means  always  as  blue  as  it  is  painted,  but  has  its 
zones  of  dark  green  and  purplish,  according  to  the 
light.  And  in  a  walk  along  the  sea-walls  surround- 
ing Cadiz,  one  meets  with  many  unique  sights,  such 


SHERRYLAND   AND   CADIZ  71 

as  the  large  mercantile  storehouses,  sailors  from  all 
parts  of  the  world,  including  a  sprinkling  of  negroes 
and  Moors,  betokening  the  neighborhood  of  Africa, 
troops  of  soldiers  always  walking  prestissimo,  and, 
finally,  the  numerous  fishermen  sitting  unprotected 
in  the  broiling  sun,  which  would  be  insufferable 
were  it  not  for  the  sea-breeze.  The  fish  they  catch 
are  of  the  most  delicious  flavor,  especially  when 
one  gets  them  hot  at  the  numerous  small  fish  kit- 
chens opening  on  the  street,  where  they  are  fried  in 
large  kettles  of  olive-oil.  I  tried  these  on  the  recom- 
mendation of  the  German  Consul,  who  said  that, 
however  objectionable  the  original  flavor  of  Spanish 
olive-oil  might  be,  this  flavor  entirely  disappears 
after  a  few  dozen  fish  have  been  fried  in  it.  It  then 
becomes  as  clear  as  water,  and  the  fish  fried  in  it  are 
as  crisp  and  as  delicate  in  flavor  as  the  best  chef 
could  make  them.  But  that,  the  Consul  added,  was 
about  the  only  thing  fit  to  eat  one  could  get  in 
Cadiz,  and  as  for  himself,  he  chiefly  lived  on  im- 
ported canned  meats.  Almost  all  the  fresh  meat  is 
brought  from  Africa  (Tangier),  and  is  by  no  means 
of  superior  quality,  while  its  price  is  so  enhanced  by 
the  duty  levied  on  all  edibles  at  the' city  gates  that 
only  the  wealthy  can  afford  to  eat  meat — a  chicken, 
for  instance,  costing  75  cents  in  the  market. 

This  tax  on  the  most  necessary  articles  of  food, 
which  makes  living  so  much  more  expensive  to  all 


72  SPAIN   AND    MOROCCO 

classes  (not  only  in  Spain,  but  in  some  other  Euro- 
pean countries),  has  always  seemed  to  me  protection- 
ism gone  mad,  and  made  me  look  upon  smugglers 
as  the  only  upholders  of  natural  law  and  human 
rights  against  tyrannic  and  idiotic  legislation.  Sit- 
ting on  a  bench  in  front  of  the  hotel  one  day,  a  man 
accosted  me  in  a  mysterious  manner,  and  offered  me 
a  splendid  lot  of  fine  cigars  at  a  ridiculous  price. 
Of  course  he  was  a  smuggler,  and  I  was  almost 
sorry  that  I  don't  smoke.  The  worst  of  these  im- 
posts is  that  neither  the  city  nor  the  state  derives 
any  considerable  benefit  from  them.  Most  of  the 
money  goes  into  the  private  pockets  of  the  officials. 
Southern  Spain  is  overrun  with  smugglers,  whose 
trade  is  the  safest  one  in  the  world,  for  they  simply 
share  their  plunder  with  the  officials  and  go  scot- 
free  wherever  they  please.  An  incident  illustrating 
their  methods  was  told  me  on  good  authority. 
There  is  an  old  law  according  to  which  a  foreign 
vessel  that  enters  the  harbor  of  Cadiz  without  hav- 
ing undergone  certain  formalities  of  registering  at  a 
certain  place,  can  be  seized  and  fined  to  the  amount 
of  ten  times  the  duty  that  would  be  levied  on  the 
goods.  One  day  a  German  vessel  entered  the  har- 
bor without  having  complied  with  these  regulations, 
through  no  fault  of  the  captain's,  but  because  the 
official  could  not  be  found.  Although  the  vessel 
was  not  bound  for  Cadiz,  but  simply  stopped  there 


SHERRYLAND   AND    CADIZ  73 

to  wait  for  telegraphic  orders  before  proceeding  on 
its  course,  it  was  seized,  and  the  captain  was  in- 
formed that  he  would  have  to  pay  a  fine  of  over 
a  hundred  thousand.  He  appealed  to  the  consul, 
who  immediately  went  to  Madrid,  where  he  found 
that  the  officials,  from  lowest  to  highest,  had 
already  figured  out  what  would  be  their  share  of 
the  plunder  ;  and  if  he  had  not  been  backed  up  by 
the  embassy  of  his  country,  and  assumed  a  threat- 
ening attitude,  his  mission  would  have  been  a 
failure. 

From  time  immemorial  it  has  been  the  custom  in 
Spain  for  every  one,  beginning  with  kings  and  ec- 
clesiastics, to  plunder  and  cheat  subordinates,  who 
in  turn  could  hardly  avoid  following  their  example  ; 
and  thus  the  thing  has  gone  on  from  one  end  of  the 
chain  to  the  other.  My  own  experiences  having 
been  entirely  of  an  unofficial  nature,  my  impres- 
sions of  the  Spaniards  are  almost  all  of  a  favorable 
nature,  except  in  the  matter  of  bull-fights  and  occa- 
sional instances  of  stupendous  ignorance — which  the 
present  methods  of  education  are  hardly  likely  to 
modify ;  for  I  am  told  that  even  in  Cadiz,  cultivated 
by  constant  contact  with  foreigners,  boys  of  six  and 
of  sixteen  years  are  put  into  the  same  classes,  study- 
ing the  same  lessons.  Yet  the  kernel  of  the  Span- 
ish people  is  sound  and  sweet.  I  have  travelled  a 
good  deal,  but  nowhere  have  I  found  well-dressed 


74  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

people  so  willing  to  go  several  blocks  out  of  their 
way  to  direct  you  to  a  certain  street.  They  con- 
stantly do  it,  however  much  you  may  protest.  At 
the  popular  festivals,  again,  the  most  perfect  order 
prevails,  and  one  never  sees  so  much  as  an  angry 
look.  The  peasants  are  extremely  polite  and  good- 
natured.  When  I  left  Seville,  a  score  of  peasants 
waited  until  a  dozen  foreigners  had  bought  their 
tickets,  although  they  were  at  the  window  first.  I 
do  not  think  such  a  thing  would  happen  anywhere 
else,  nor  do  I  believe  that,  in  the  same  class,  one 
could  witness  in  any  other  country  a  little  idyllic 
scene  such  as  I  saw  one  day  in  Seville.  I  was  sit- 
ting in  the  Alameda,  and  on  the  opposite  side  of  the 
bench  sat  a  nurse  with  a  lovely  black-eyed  boy  of 
seven  years.  Presently  three  ragged  boys,  a  year  or 
two  older,  came  along,  one  of  whom  held  a  rose  in 
his  hand.  Seeing  the  boy  in  the  nurse's  lap  he 
approached  him,  put  the  rose  in  his  hand,  and  re- 
joined his  companions,  smiling,  before  the  nurse 
had  time  to  say,  "  Gracias."  Such  abundant  in- 
stances of  amiability  and  innate  love  of  beauty 
could  not  be  found  in  a  nation  which  is  corrupted 
in  its  core. 


YI 

THE  "  INFIDEL  CITY  "  OF  MOROCCO 

The  China  of  the  West.— Sights  in  Tangier.— The  Moorish 
Quarter. — The  Market  Place. — Lepers  in  the  Streets. — 
A  Snake  Charmer. — Coy  Women. — Jewesses. — Arabic 
Money. — The  Prison  and  the  Judge. — A  Moorish  Cafe. 
— Native  Dancing  Girls. 

No  tourist  who  makes  the  round  trip  of  Spain  should 
neglect  to  pay  a  flying  visit  to  Morocco,  "  the  China 
of  the  West."  Indeed,  he  is  obliged  to  go  there, 
unless  he  wishes  to  have  the  solidity  of  his  bones 
tested  on  the  nocturnal  stage  ride  from  Cadiz  to 
Gibraltar — a  ride  which  must  be  peculiarly  atro- 
cious, to  judge  from  the  smile  which  always  flits 
across  the  face  of  an  honest  citizen  of  Cadiz  when 
consulted  about  it  by  a  stranger.  Regular  steamers 
used  to  ply  between  the  two  cities,  but  have  lately 
been  taken  off;  and  those  who  wish  to  continue 
their  Spanish  tour  by  steam  conveyance  therefore 
have  to  take  a  steamer  from  Cadiz  to  Tangier,  and 
thence  another  to  Gibraltar.  In  the  latest  edition 
of  Murray's  "Handbook  of  Spain,"  we  read:  "To 
Tangier  occasionally,  by  James  Haynes  steamers, 


76  SPAIN    AND    MOKOCCO 

Bmall  and  dirty  ;  take  provisions."  There  is  no  ex- 
cuse for  this  statement,  since  more  than  half  a  year 
before  the  appearance  of  this  edition,  the  Compagnie 
Generale  Transatlantique  placed  a  special  steamer 
on  the  route  Cadiz-Tangier,  making  three  trips  a 
week  each  way,  in  six  or  seven  hours.  The  boat  is 
no  larger  than  those  which  ply  on  the  English 
Channel  between  Dover  and  Calais,  but  it  is  clean 
and  comfortable,  and  a  fair  breakfast  can  be  ob- 
tained on  board. 

As  in  all  other  Spanish  ports,  the  steamer  is  an- 
chored far  out  in  the  harbor,  and  passengers  are 
conveyed  to  its  side  in  small  boats.  Several  Moors 
are  among  the  passengers,  with  red  turbans  and  red 
sashes  around  the  waist ;  and  one  of  them  carries  a 
peacock  in  a  basket  fitting  its  body  as  tightly  as  a 
corset,  with  its  head  sticking  out  on  one  side  and  its 
tail  on  the  other.  It  is  seven  in  the  morning,  and 
the  numerous  vessels  in  the  harbor  are  still  asleep, 
excepting  a  few  which  are  loading  salt  from  barges. 
As  the  steamer  leaves  the  harbor  it  becomes  more 
and  more  noticeable  how  far  Cadiz  lies  in  the  sea  ; 
and  so  intensely  white  is  the  city  that  even  after  the 
steamer  has  been  sailing  away  from  it  for  an  hour 
and  a  half,  it  still  pains  the  eye  to  look  at  it  in  the 
glare  of  the  morning  sun.  Finally,  as  the  rotundity 
of  the  earth  makes  the  ship  sink  down  on  one  side, 
the  city  on  the  other,  the  turreted  roofs  alone  re- 


THE    "  INFIDEL   CITY5'    OF   MOEOCCO       77 

main  visible,  looking  like  the  white  tents  of  a  mili- 
tary encampment. 

Surely,  in  all  the  world  there  can  be  no  excursion 
more  suggestive  than  this,  during  which  Europe  and 
Africa,  the  Atlantic  Ocean  and  the  Mediterranean, 
are  in  sight  at  the  same  time,  affording  the  imagina- 
tion a  wide  scope  for  varied  exercise. 

The  distance  which  separates  Spain  from  Morocco 
is  insignificant ;  yet,  although  Spain  is  not  exactly  the 
most  civilized  part  of  Europe,  the  contrast  between 
the  two  countries  is  startling.  "When  the  curtain 
rises  again  after  the  short  watery  entr'acte,  the  scene 
has  completely  changed  to  the  Orient.  After  visit- 
ing Cordova  and  Seville,  with  their  Moorish  houses 
and  "  African  "  streets,  a  tourist  might  fancy  himself 
prepared  for  these  new  scenes  of  Moorish  life  ;  but 
Tangier  remains,  from  the  first  moment  to  the  last, 
a  surprise  bordering  on  amazement,  that  here,  almost 
within  stone's  throw  of  Europe,  should  be  a  country 
BO  dissimilar  to  it  in  every  detail  of  life  and  man- 
ners. Indeed,  were  it  not  for  the  "  European  "  ho- 
tels and  the  suburban  residences  of  the  consuls,  the 
unlucky  tourist  might  fancy  that  some  demon  had 
taken  him  by  the  neck  while  asleep  and  dropped 
him  on  another  planet ;  a  demon,  because  no  benig- 
nant spirit  would  ever  drop  a  man  into  such  a  dread- 
ful place,  even  by  way  of  well-merited  punishment. 
At  the  same  time  Tangier  might  be  made  one  of  the 


78  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

most  charming  of  seaports.  It  is  picturesquely 
situated,  has  beautiful  mountainous  surroundings, 
and  a  climate  so  cool  that  in  summer  the  English 
often  come  over  from  Gibraltar  for  a  breath  of  fresh 
air.  But  the  town  itself  is  a  colony  of  savages,  vio- 
lating every  hygienic  and  sesthetic  law  under  the 
sun. 

It  seems  almost  a  pity  that  a  pier  has  been  built 
on  which  passengers  can  be  transferred  either  di- 
rectly from  the  steamer,  or  on  boats.  The  old  way, 
by  which  Jews  carried  the  passengers  on  shore  on 
their  shoulders — (Mohammedans  scorning  to  carry 
a  Christian) — seemed  much  more  in  harmony  with 
the  primitive  arrangements  and  aspect  of  the  whole 
city.  Hotel  porters  receive  the  guests  at  the  pier, 
and  pilot  them  through  the  town,  after  stopping  in 
front  of  two  Moorish  customs  officials,  squatting  on 
their  hind  legs  and  too  lazy  to  rise  while  conduct- 
ing their  examination.  They  hardly  glance  at  the 
hand-baggage,  and  motion  to  us  to  proceed.  We 
move  up  a  dirty,  unpaved,  malodorous  street,  so  nar- 
row that  there  is  hardly  room  to  pass  by  the  in- 
numerable laden  donkeys  that  meet  us.  At  last  the 
porter  stops  and  opens  a  door.  Can  this  be  the 
Continental  Hotel  ?  and  if  so,  hadn't  we  better  go 
back  to  the  steamer  at  once  ?  Inside,  however,  the 
hotel  is  found  to  be  a  very  clean,  comfortable,  and 
almost  elegant  abode  ;  and  on  the  back  side  it  has  a 


THE  "INFIDEL  CITY"  OF  MOROCCO     79 

number  of  much-coveted  rooms  -with  a  fine  view  of 
the  ocean,  and  the  coast  and  harbor  scenery.  Be- 
low the  balcony  is  a  wilderness  of  cactus,  inhabited 
by  a  black  cat.  Adjoining  it,  and  further  down,  near 
the  ocean,  half  a  dozen  half -naked  boys  are  playing 
marbles  on  a  flat  white  roof.  Another  half  dozen, 
entirely  naked,  and  of  all  colors  from  black  to  white, 
are  bathing  in  the  ocean.  To  the  right,  along  the 
curved  beach,  are  some  bathing  houses  backed  up 
by  small  hotels  ;  but  it  seems  hardly  warm  enough 
to  bathe  with  comfort,  and  an  exploring  expedition 
into  the  town  seems  more  tempting.  So,  thinking 
of  Livingstone  and  other  heroes  who  had  preceded 
me  in  exploring  the  Dark  Continent,  I  started  up  a 
street  to  the  right.  But  hardly  had  I  gone  a  hun- 
dred yards  when  I  saw  three  men  in  Moorish  cos- 
tume running  after  me.  They  proved  to  be  the 
guides  who  had  offered  their  services  at  the  hotel, 
and  who  now  assured  me  in  English  and  French 
that  I  was  in  the  Moorish  quarter,  where  "Euro- 
peans "  could  not  safely  go  alone.  But  their  ruse 
was  in  vain,  as  I  had  been  told  I  could  go  anywhere 
in  Tangier  without  a  chaperon.  They  looked  after 
me  as  if  I  were  a  doomed  man,  when  I  waved  them 
back  and  boldly  plunged  into  the  dizzy  labyrinth 
of  streets,  trusting  to  luck  and  the  Prophet  to  bring 
me  back  safely  to  the  hotel. 

The  difficulty  in  Tangier  is  that  one  cannot  even 


80  SPAIN  AND   MOEOCCO 

use  a  map  and  compass  to  find  one's  way,  as  in 
Toledo  and  Cordova,  since  there  is  no  map  of  Tan- 
gier, and  the  streets,  though  they  are  said  to  have 
their  (Arabic)  names,  are  not  marked.  However, 
the  town  is  not  large,  having  only  15,000  inhabi- 
tants ;  and  if  it  comes  to  the  worst,  one  can  go  up 
the  hill  and  get  the  bearings  of  the  steamboat  land- 
ing, whence  it  is  easy  to  find  the  way  to  the  hotel. 
All  the  streets  of  Tangier  run  up  and  down  hill ; 
but  it  seems  hardly  correct  to  call  them  streets,  as 
they  are  mere  narrow  alley-ways  ;  and  the  white- 
washed houses  on  both  sides,  having  no  windows, 
look  like  stone  walls  pierced  here  and  there  by  a 
door.  The  doors  are  always  closed,  and  it  is  very 
rarely  that  one  gets  a  glimpse  of  an  interior  with  its 
inevitable  patio  or  courtyard.  The  shops,  on  the 
other  hand,  are  all  open  to  the  street,  being  mere 
booths  in  which  the  Moors  sit  with  crossed  legs, 
having  their  wares  arranged  along  the  walls,  and  so 
near  that  they  can  reach  any  of  them  without  stir- 
ring from  their  seats  :  a  great  scheme  for  the  con- 
servation of  energy.  The  customer  of  course  re- 
mains in  the  street. 

Tangier  being  overrun  with  strangers,  my  ap- 
pearance did  not  create  much  excitement  among 
the  natives,  even  in  this  "  Moorish  quarter,"  as  the 
guides  called  it.  The  children,  however,  seemed  to 
regard  me  as  a  sort  of  circus,  and  eyed  me  curiously. 


THE    "  INFIDEL   CITY"    OF   MOEOCCO       81 

Some  of  them  have  perfectly  "  white  "  skins,  and  the 
loveliest  black  eyes.  A  little  boy  held  out  his  hand, 
and  I  gave  him  a  copper  ;  a  very  unwise  thing  to  do, 
for  immediately  I  was  besieged  by  a  dozen  others, 
and  had  to  walk  faster  to  get  away  from  them. 

Begging,  however,  seems  to  be  a  rarity  in  Moroc- 
co as  compared  with  Spain  ;  nor  are  the  beggars  so 
importunate,  a  simple  shake  of  the  head  being  suf- 
ficient to  make  them  desist.  Perhaps  some  of  them 
scorn  to  receive  anything  from  a  "  Christian  dog," 
which  is  the  pet  name  the  natives  have  for  all  for- 
eigners. They  have  a  habit,  these  African  beggars, 
of  pulling  strangers  by  the  sleeve  as  they  pass  by 
to  attract  their  attention.  It  is  not  so  much  the 
familiarity  that  breeds  disgust  at  this  practice,  as 
the  evident  fact  that  their  microbe-infested  hands 
have  never  been  washed.  And  after  one  has  no- 
ticed a  snow-white  leper  or  two  among  them,  one  is 
apt  to  become  very  shy  of  these  sleeve-pulling  beg- 
gars. The  Moroccans,  I  am  told,  are  not  so  afraid 
as  we  are  of  this  most  loathsome  of  all  diseases  ; 
and  in  Tangier  the  lepers  are  allowed  the  freedom 
of  the  streets.  In  the  city  of  Morocco  there  are  so 
many  that  a  special  suburb  is  given  up  to  them. 
And  no  wonder  there  are  so  many,  since  even  at 
Tangier,  where  the  presence  of  foreigners  has  ef- 
fected some  reform,  the  condition  of  the  streets  is 
indescribably  foul  and  filthy.  Everything  that 
6 


82  SPAIN  AND  MOEOCCO 

ought  to  go  into  the  gutter,  together  with  kitchen 
refuse  and  dead  cats  and  dogs,  is  thrown  into  the 
street,  where  the  scorching  sun  soon  does  its  work. 
Hence  the  tourist  in  search  of  local  color  encount- 
ers a  good  deal  of  local  odor  as  well.  Occasionally 
the  rubbish  is  removed  in  baskets,  on  donkeys ;  but 
the  street-cleaning  department  seems  to  be  as  re- 
miss here  as  in  more  civilized  cities.  And  yet  it 
must  be  admitted  that  even  the  canine  and  feline 
carcasses  in  the  street  are  not  an  unmitigated  evil ; 
for  they  attract  the  innumerable  large  black  flies, 
which  prefer  them  as  sporting  ground  to  the  human 
countenance,  so  that  in  the  city  itself  one  is  never 
molested  by  them  ;  whereas  at  the  European  and 
American  consulates,  where  they  miss  their  favorite 
food,  they  almost  devour  human  beings,  as  I  dis- 
covered the  next  day.  In  rainy  weather  the  streets 
of  Tangier,  unpaved,  and  with  all  this  rubbish,  must 
be  terrible  ;  and  the  proprietor  of  the  Continental 
Hotel  informed  me  that  some  of  his  guests  remain 
in  the  house  all  the  winter,  taking  their  exercise  on 
the  roof. 

Having  found  my  way  back  to  the  hotel  without 
any  difficulty,  I  set  out  again  about  sunset  time  in 
the  opposite  direction,  toward  the  Soko,  or  market 
place,  which  is  the  sight  of  Tangier.  I  arrived  just 
in  time  to  see  a  caravan  of  camels  filing  across  the 
place,  which  is  a  large  open  space,  surrounded  by 


THE    "  INFIDEL  CITY"    OF   MOROCCO      83 

booths  and  tents,  and  filled  with  men  and  women, 
donkeys,  oxen,  and  camels,  and  wares  for  sale. 
The  women  and  donkeys  are  the  most  numerous. 
To  describe  all  the  various  groups  and  scenes  would 
require  a  chapter,  and  a  page  might  be  devoted  to 
the  headdresses  of  the  men  alone.  Around  the  body 
they  all  have  a  large,  shapeless  woollen  cloak  or  sack, 
which  no  two  wear  exactly  alike,  and  with  about  as 
much  grace  as  an  Indian  displays  with  his  horse- 
blanket.  On  their  head  some  wear  an  ordinary  tur- 
ban, others  a  mere  bundle  of  cords,  or  a  red  band, 
or  a  colored  handkerchief,  or  what  looks  like  the 
lining  of  a  hat,  or  a  sort  of  monk's-hood  which 
forms  the  upper  part  of  the  cloak.  The  women 
and  girls,  dressed  in  shapeless  sack-cloaks,  so  sim- 
ilar to  those  of  the  men  that  at  some  distance  it  is 
difficult  to  distinguish  them,  are  scattered  in  groups 
all  over  the  place,  each  with  a  bundle  of  fresh- 
mown  grass  in  front  of  her,  which  the  men  buy  for 
their  donkeys,  after  much  parleying  and  bargaining. 
The  women  are  all  bare-legged  to  the  knee  (and)  plus 
ultra,  but  most  of  them,  and  especially  the  younger 
ones,  have  the  usual  Oriental  coyness  about  show- 
ing their  faces.  Some  wear  a  handkerchief  tied 
around  the  lower  part  of  the  face,  leaving  only  the 
eyes  and  part  of  the  nose  exposed  ;  a  very  sensible 
custom,  since  their  eyes  are  always  beautiful  and 
their  mouths  generally  ugly.  Others  simply  draw 


84  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

their  hood  over  the  face  when  they  see  a  man  gazing 
at  them.  The  very  old  or  quite  young  are  rather 
careless  about  covering  their  faces,  with  exceptions; 
but  all  appear  to  be  more  sensitive  to  the  gaze  of 
foreigners  than  to  that  of  believers. 

Grass-selling  seemed  to  be  the  only  business  car- 
ried on  this  evening  in  the  market-place  ;  but  the 
next  morning,  being  a  regular  market  day,  the 
scenes  were  more  varied.  Besides  their  bundles 
of  grass,  the  women  now  had  for  sale  all  kinds 
of  household  goods  and  clothing,  gaudily-colored 
shawls,  towels,  pottery,  etc.  In  some  of  the  sur- 
rounding booths  flour,  nuts,  butter,  dates,  fresh 
fruits,  and  colored  candies — all  of  them  very  unap- 
petizing in  appearance — were  on  exhibition,  while 
in  others  busy  Moors  were  at  work  in  embossing 
large  plates  of  a  yellow  metal  with  diverse  orna- 
ments, in  which  they  evinced  some  of  the  good 
taste  which  their  ancestors  so  often  exhibited  in 
Spain.  Adjoining  these  booths,  to  the  right,  and 
just  below  one  of  the  "  European  "  hotels,  was  a 
group  of  tents  which  beggar  description,  the  canvas 
being  even  more  dirty  than  the  never-washed  cloaks 
into  which  the  Moors  received  the  bread  and  dates 
they  bought,  and  comparing  with  our  ordinary 
camping  tents  as  a  New  Jersey  tramp's  suit  does 
with  a  gentleman's  evening  dress  in  an  opera-box. 
The  donkeys  were  again  so  superabundant  that  one 


THE    "  INFIDEL   CITY"    OP   MOROCCO       85 

could  hardly  make  one's  way  among  them,  and  in 
one  corner  a  score  of  oxen  were  shambling  along 
in  the  most  ludicrous  fashion  with  their  fore  legs 
shackled — fortunately,  for  if  they  had  stampeded 
among  the  women  and  their  pottery,  there  would 
have  been  a  pretty  scene. 

A  band  consisting  of  two  stringless  snare-drums 
and  an  instrument  which  sounded  like  a  cross  be- 
tween a  bagpipe  and  a  young  oboe  gone  mad, 
made  the  day  hideous  with  its  music  and  attracted 
attention  to  a  show  in  one  corner — the  inevitable 
snake-charmer.  He  was  a  most  ferocious-looking 
fiend,  and  seemed  to  try  to  drown  the  band  with 
his  savage  shouts  and  yells,  as  he  exhibited  hia 
reptiles.  There  were  five  of  them,  of  various  sizes. 
He  pulls  the  biggest  one  out  of  his  bag,  and  after 
going  through  various  contortions  with  it,  seizes  it 
in  the  middle  with  his  teeth  and  holds  it  in  his 
mouth  while  he  takes  out  two  smaller  ones,  which 
he  tries  to  make  bite  each  other.  They  refuse  to 
bite,  however,  until  he  applies  their  heads  to  hia 
own  forehead,  nose,  and  eyes,  whereupon  they  wake 
up  to  business.  The  old  man  does  not  move  a  mus- 
cle, but  his  small  boy,  whom  he  next  allows  his 
snakes  to  bite  in  the  face,  shrinks  back  a  little  at 
each  bite,  yet  holds  his  ground.  Finally  he  makes 
one  of  the  small  snakes  hold  the  large  one  by  its 
teeth  suspended  in  the  air.  These  snakes,  it  is 


86  SPAIN  AND   MOEOCCO 

said,  are  really  poisonous,  but  the  charmers  eat  of 
a  certain  plant  which  serves  as  an  antidote.  Yet  I 
could  not  help  feeling  sorry  for  the  boy,  whose  face 
was  all  covered  with  scars,  and  who  did  not  seem 
to  enjoy  the  performance  a  bit.  The  showman 
having  espied  me  in  the  circle  of  spectators,  made 
straight  for  me  and  held  out  his  hand  for  money. 
The  natives  gave  him  nothing,  or  at  most  a  copper 
worth  a  tenth  of  a  cent ;  but  when  I  offered  him  a 
Spanish  two-cent  piece  he  wanted  more,  and  shook 
his  head  and  looked  fierce  till  I  added  another  cent 
— three  cents  being  fully  equal  to  a  quarter  of  a 
dollar  as  prices  go  in  Tangier. 

As  I  was  turning  away  from  this  scene,  a  voice 
behind  me  inquired,  "Do  you  speak  English?'* 
As  no  reply  was  forthcoming,  "Parlez-vous  fran9ais  " 
was  asked ;  and  this  in  turn  followed  by  the  same 
inquiry  in  Spanish  and  Italian.  My  curiosity  being 
at  last  aroused,  I  turned  around  and  saw  that  the 
polyglot,  who  I  supposed  must  be  a  Jew,  was  really 
a  Moor.  Surely,  such  linguistic  genius  in  one  of  a 
race  not  noted  for  such  accomplishments  deserved 
recognition,  and  I  asked  him  how  much  he  would 
charge  per  day  to  take  me  about  Tangiers.  "  Six 
shillings,"  he  said  ;  and  let  no  one  suppose  that  he 
said  "  shillings  "  because  I  spoke  English.  There 
was  a  deeper  reason  than  that.  The  Spanish  peseta 
is  the  silver  coin  used  as  a  standard  in  Tangier, 


THE    "  INFIDEL  CITY"    OF  MOROCCO       87 

shillings  not  being  current  at  all ;  but  the  guides, 
and  the  Jews  in  their  bazaars,  always  give  their 
prices  in  shillings,  because  a  shilling,  forsooth,  is 
worth  four  cents  more  than  a  peseta.  I  employed 
this  guide  for  five  days,  but  though  he  proved  well- 
informed  and  trustworthy,  I  could  not  cure  him 
of  his  rascally  habit  of  reckoning  everything  in 
shillings  when  justice  and  convenience  called  for 
pesetas  ;  and  he  had  a  ready  way  of  computing  a 
shilling  at  a  peseta  and  a  half,  until  I  gave  him  a 
lesson  in  arithmetic,  which  I  dare  say  he  had  for- 
gotten a  week  later.  The  Moorish  silver  coins — 
five,  ten,  and  fifty  cents,  and  a  dollar  in  value,  coined 
in  Paris  and  marked  with  Arabic  characters  and 
the  figure  1299 — do  not  seem  to  be  much  in  use, 
the  natives  transacting  all  their  business  with  dirty 
coins  as  large  as  English  pennies  but  worth  only  a 
centimo,  or  tenth  of  a  cent ;  and  as  there  are  no 
wagons  in  Tangier  I  refused  to  burden  myself 
with  any  of  this  "  small  change,"  always  allowing 
the  grateful  guide  to  dispose  of  it  at  will  in  the  re- 
cesses of  his  ample  cloak. 

He  took  me  first  up  the  hill  to  the  ruins  of  the 
Sultan's  palace  and  the  prison,  whence  a  fine  view  of 
the  city  and  the  harbor  is  obtained.  According  to 
the  guide-book  the  horrors  of  this  prison  are  "  ut- 
terly indescribable  ; "  but  I  could  not  see  that  it  was 
any  worse  than  Tangier  in  general,  and  certainly 


88  SPAIN  AND  MOROCCO 

cleaner  than  the  streets  and  public  places.  There 
was  a  small  opening  through  which  one  could  look 
into  a  large  room  in  which  the  prisoners  were  walk- 
ing about  or  sitting,  and  looking  quite  as  cheerful 
and  contented  as  any  other  Moors.  One  of  them 
handed  out  some  neat  colored  straw  bags,  as  speci- 
mens of  prison  labor.  Just  as  we  left  the  prison, 
five  more  captives  were  marched  in,  while  on  the 
street  several  others  were  quarrelling  in  such  loud 
and  angry  tones  that  it  seemed  only  a  question  of 
minutes  when  they  would  come  to  blows  and  be 
arrested  too.  Subsequently  we  saw  several  other 
groups  on  the  point  of  fighting,  widen  led  me  to  ask 
the  guide  if  his  countrymen  were  always  in  this  quar- 
relsome mood.  He  said,  No,  but  that  the  Ramadan 
made  them  sleepy,  hungry,  and  cross.  And  no  won- 
der. The  Ramadan  is  a  sort  of  Mohammedan  Lent, 
which  lasts  twenty-eight  days,  and  during  which  no 
one  is  allowed  to  eat  or  drink  anything  whatever, 
all  day  long,  no  matter  how  hard  he  has  to  work 
and  how  burning  the  sun.  At  sunset  a  gun  is  fired, 
which  is  heard  all  over  town,  and  shortly  before 
sunrise  another,  and  in  the  interval  between  these 
two  guns  the  faithful  are  allowed  to  eat  and  drink, 
which  they  do  with  a  vengeance,  making  all  their 
preparations  beforehand  so  as  to  be  ready  to  "pitch 
in  "  at  the  signal. 

Opposite  the  Sultan's  palace  a  scene  meets  the 


THE    "  INFIDEL   CITY"    OF   MOROCCO       89 

eye  which  greatly  strengthens  the  general  impres- 
sion given  by  Tangier,  as  if  all  its  inhabitants  were 
engaged  in  an  eternal  masquerade,  and  constantly 
getting  up  tableaux  illustrating  life  on  this  planet  as 
it  was  two  or  three  thousand  years  ago.  There,  in 
a  large  niche,  fronted  with  an  oriental  arch  and 
columns,  sits  the  Kady,  or  judge,  with  his  big  white 
turban  and  flowing  robes,  ready  to  dispense  justice 
off-hand,  and  looking  for  all  the  world  like  a  picture 
from  an  illustrated  edition  of  the  "  Arabian  Nights." 
I  could  have  been  hardly  more  surprised  to  come 
across  Socrates,  arm  in  arm  with  Alcibiades  and 
Pericles,  going  down  the  street  to  call  on  Aspasia. 
A  few  moments  later  we  passed  a  booth  about  ten 
feet  square,  open  toward  the  street.  This,  the 
guide  explained,  was  a  lawyer's  office.  On  the  out- 
side sat  a  client  explaining  his  case,  with  many 
gestures  ;  inside  were  two  not  unintelligent-looking 
Moors,  one  of  them  with  a  dozen  eggs  lying  in  front 
of  him ;  doubtless  the  fee,  or  possibly  a  retainer. 
Later  on  we  saw  another  lawyer's  office,  somewhat 
larger  and  more  elegant,  and  with  a  pile  of  books 
in  a  corner.  In  this  high-toned  place,  no  doubt, 
copper  was  exacted  in  payment,  in  place  of  eggs. 

We  passed  the  town  offices  of  several  foreign 
embassies,  very  much  less  inviting  than  those  in 
the  suburbs ;  and,  not  far  from  them,  Tangier's 
three  post-offices,  adjoining  each  other  ;  one  of  them 


90  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

Spanish,  one  English,  and  one  French.  According 
to  anyone's  desire  to  benefit  this  or  that  govern- 
ment, he  buys  his  stamps  and  chooses  among  these 
post-offices.  The  State  of  Morocco  has  no  postal 
arrangements,  and  if  the  natives  should  ever  wish 
to  despatch  a  letter  to  Europe  they  must  patronize 
the  foreign  offices.  Within  Morocco,  private  mes- 
sengers are  employed,  who  have  a  hard  time  of  it 
swimming  the  rivers  and  braving  the  scorching  sun 
of  the  interior.  Of  course  there  is  no  newspaper  in 
the  Moorish  language  (which  is  a  corrupt  form  of 
Arabic,  the  Moors  being  the  descendants  of  the 
Moroccan  Berbers  who  went  to  Spain  and  there  be- 
came mixed  with  Arabs),  and  public  announcements 
therefore  have  to  be  made  in  writing,  or  orally.  I 
came  across  a  specimen  of  the  latter  mode  on  my 
first  day  in  Tangier,  before  I  had  engaged  a  guide. 
As  I  was  walking  along  the  street,  a  Moorish 
official  accosted  me  with  a  "  Parlez-vous  fran9ais  ?  " 
"  Oui,  Monsieur."  Whereupon  he  took  a  letter 
out  of  a  large  envelope,  containing  a  proclamation 
in  French  forbidding  the  exportation  of  human 
bones  from  Morocco  for  agricultural  purposes  (a 
thing  which  had  been  done  some  time  previously). 
I  asked  him  why  he  showed  me  this  edict.  But  he 
shook  his  head,  smiled,  and  passed  on.  The  parlez- 
vous  was  evidently  all  the  fransais  he  knew.  Hence 
I  could  not  reprove  him  for  taking  me,  a  harmless- 


THE  "INFIDEL  CITY"  OF  MOROCCO     91 

looking  individual  with  eye-glasses,  for  a  ghoulish 
bone-pirate. 

Many  other  instances  might  be  given  showing 
how  deeply  the  Moors  have  sunk  from  the  position 
occupied  by  their  ancestors  in  Spain,  who  at  one 
time  were  the  advance  guard  of  the  civilized  world, 
had  famous  universities,  and  built  masterpieces  of 
architecture  at  Cordova  and  Granada  which  are  still 
the  chief  boast  of  Spain,  four  centuries  after  the  ex- 
pulsion of  the  Moors.  In  Tangier  there  is  no  trace 
of  that  old  civilization,  not  even  a  mosque  with  any 
pretensions  to  beauty.  The  chief  mosque  has  some 
pretty  mosaics  on  the  outside,  but  otherwise  is 
hardly  worth  looking  at,  the  interior,  too,  being  said 
to  be  very  plain.  Unbelievers  are  not  allowed  to 
enter  a  mosque  in  Morocco,  which  in  this  respect  is 
less  tolerant  than  Turkey.  The  Sultan,  however, 
has  unbent  so  far  as  to  allow  the  building  of  a 
catholic  chapel  (Spanish) ;  but  then  the  followers  of 
the  Prophet  look  upon  Tangier  as  an  "  infidel  city," 
hopelessly  defiled  by  the  presence  of  so  many  Chris- 
tians. Even  the  Jews  are  allowed  certain  privileges, 
not  being  cooped  up  and  walled  in  a  separate  quarter, 
as  in  other  Moroccan  cities.  However,  they  naturally 
flock  together  in  certain  streets.  The  guide  took  me 
into  a  synagogue,  where  about  three  dozen  boys 
were  sitting  on  benches,  reading  from  a  text-book. 
The  teacher,  an  intelligent  and  refined-looking  man, 


92  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

got  up  and  bowed  as  we  entered,  and  at  a  signal  the 
"boys  followed  his  example,  and  one  of  them  gave  me 
his  book  ;  but  it  was  all  Hebrew  to  me. 

The  Jews  wear  as  tasteful  headdresses  as  the 
Moors,  but  do  not  shamble  along  so  ungracefully 
in  hideous  cloaks,  their  costume  being  peculiarly 
neat  and  becoming,  especially  on  their  Sunday. 
(Tangier  has  three  Sundays,  the  Mohammedan  on 
Friday,  the  Jewish  on  Saturday,  and  the  Christian. 
On  Thursday,  all  the  Moors  slaughter  chickens  for 
their  "  Sunday  "  feast,  throwing  them  into  the  street 
to  end  their  struggles.  (The  toughest  are  sent  to 
Cadiz,  as  I  knew  from  sad  experience.)  The  Jew- 
esses wear  a  colored  silk  handkerchief — very  much 
more  becoming  than  any  hat  or  bonnet  ever  de- 
vised by  a  French  milliner,  and  much  cheaper ; 
and  among  them  are  not  a  few  who  fully  sustain 
their  reputation  for  beauty,  with  their  dark  oriental 
eyes,  clear  complexions,  and  plump  figures.  In  the 
fashionable  part  of  town,  along  the  beach,  I  met  a 
group  of  Jewesses  in  European  clothes.  If  they 
could  have  only  realized  how  much  less  graceful 
and  elegant  they  looked  than  their  sisters  in  sim- 
pler garb  ! 

The  Spanish  women  in  Tangier  seem  to  be  quite 
as  attractive  as  their  countrywomen  at  home, 
though,  like  the  Jewesses,  they  may  owe  some  of 
their  charms  to  contrast,  by  being  allowed  to  show 


THE    u  INFIDEL   CITY  "    OF   MOROCCO       93 

their  pretty  faces  and  not  shrouded  in  funereal 
sheets  like  the  Moorish  women.  Of  the  latter  one 
can  judge  only  by  the  children,  who  go  unveiled, 
and  some  of  whom  have  complexions  as  white  as 
Northern  blondes,  which  contrast  strangely  with 
their  large,  coal-black  eyes,  and  long  dark  lashes. 
The  negro  women,  as  a  rule,  are  better  looking  than 
they  are  in  America,  and  one  I  shall  never  forget 
was  a  slave  girl  carrying  water  on  her  head  up  a 
hill.  Her  bare  arms  were  gracefully  held  up  to 
balance  the  bucket,  and,  like  the  rest  of  her  half- 
clad  figure,  were  plump  and  beautifully  rounded 
and  tapering — a  perfect  model  for  a  sculptor.  Her 
large  dark  eyes  looked  with  timid  wonder  at  the 
foreigner,  who  wished  for  nothing  so  ardently  at 
that  moment  as  for  a  detective  camera  on  his  vest, 
prepared  for  an  instantaneous  photograph. 

In  the  evening,  after  partaking  of  a  good  dinner, 
served  by  Moorish  waiters  wearing  turbans  and  red 
stockings,  I  sat  on  the  stoop  in  front  of  the  hotel, 
where  I  noted  a  scene  which  showed  the  Moor  in  a 
new  light.  In  front  of  a  humble  building  opposite 
sat  a  Moor  on  the  ground,  holding  a  young  child 
in  his  lap.  I  sat  there  fifteen  minutes,  and  Moors 
were  constantly  passing,  yet  .hardly  one  of  them 
went  by  without  stopping  a  moment  to  fondle  the 
boy  and  address  a  word  to  his  father.  Surely, 
these  people  are  not  so  fierce  as  they  look,  and  were 


94  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

their  features  less  enshrouded  in  cultivated  igno- 
rance, and  stolidity,  might  look  more  like  ourselves. 
At  eight  o'clock,  by  arrangement,  the  guide  came 
again  to  show  me  the  literally  benighted  town. 
Not  a  light  anywhere  in  the  streets,  nor  a  ray  from 
any  of  the  windowless  houses.  My  guide  carried  a 
lantern,  but  the  few  Moors  we  met  in  the  streets 
seemed  to  be  guided  by  instinct  and  feeling,  like 
the  blind  beggar  in  Bulwer's  "Last  Days  of  Pom- 
peii." Our  goal  was  the  cafe,  where  there  is  gen- 
erally "  music "  in  the  evening.  It  proved  to  be 
a  dingy  old  place,  with  two  rooms  to  the  right,  in 
which  Mohammedans  were  sitting  (on  the  carpet, 
having  left  their  shoes  on  one  side),  drinking  black 
coffee,  or  tea  with  peppermint,  smoking  keef,  and 
playing.  To  the  left  was  the  music  room,  where 
some  chairs  were  placed  for  foreign  visitors,  about 
half-a-dozen  of  whom  came  in  while  we  were  there. 
The  band  included  a  modern  violin,  a  rebec  (an 
Arabic  ancestor  of  the  violin),  and  two  broad  in- 
struments like  a  cross  between  a  guitar  and  a 
mandolin.  One  rattled  his  castanets,  another 
clapped,  and  all  sang  while  they  played,  with  an 
occasional  "  orchestral  "  interlude.  For  some  time 
they  appeared  interminably  to  repeat  the  same 
phrase,  with  much  loudness  and  a  glissando  which 
threatened  to  become  monotonous,  when  suddenly 
the  melody  grew  more  interesting,  the  tempo  more 


THE    "  INFIDEL   CITY  "    OF   MOKOCCO       95 

rapid,  and  all  was  fire  and  animation.  The  guide, 
who  was  evidently  enjoying  the  music,  here  turned 
to  me  and  said  that  they  were  now  singing  about 
the  good  old  times  in  Spain.  That  explained  why 
their  hearts  were  in  it  so  !  The  Moors  and  Jews  of 
Morocco  still  dream  of  Spain  day  and  night,  and  to 
return  there  is  the  one  desire  of  their  life.  But 
just  as  the  music  was  becoming  interesting,  some 
of  the  "  Christian  dogs  " — for  the  moment  I  felt 
the  appropriateness  of  the  term — got  up  and  left, 
just  as  some  unappreciative  persons  may  be  seen 
leaving  our  opera  houses  at  the  moment  when  the 
very  gem  of  the  opera  is  being  sung.  The  musi- 
cians seemed  surprised  at  this  mark  of  insensibility 
to  their  enthusiasm,  and  stopped  short  in  the  mid- 
dle of  a  phrase. 

The  guide  now  asked  me  if  I  wished  to  go  and 
see  the  Moorish  dancing  girls.  By  all  means — al- 
though I  had  my  suspicions  that  the  "  Moorish 
girls"  would  prove  to  be  Spanish,  or  Jewesses. 
But  the  sequel  showed  that  they  were  the  genuine 
article.  Public  sentiment,  however,  evidently  did 
not  approve  of  the  idea  that  native  girls  should 
debase  themselves  by  dancing  before  "  Christians  ; " 
for  the  guide  sneaked  down  a  narrow  street,  anxi- 
ously peeping  right  and  left,  as  if  engaged  in  some 
burglarious  enterprise,  and  finally  knocked  gently 
at  a  door.  A  shutter  was  cautiously  opened,  and 


96  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

we  were  admitted,  whereupon  the  door  was  quickly 
shut  again  and  bolted.  I  might  have  been  robbed 
and  murdered  here,  but  the  guide's  appearance  and 
manners  had  inspired  me  with  perfect  confidence  in 
him.  As  we  passed  through  the  courtyard  several 
women  were  seen  sitting  on  the  floor,  in  two  rooms. 
They  either  covered  or  turned  away  their  faces  as 
we  passed.  We  went  upstairs  into  a  moderate 
sized  room  where  some  chairs  were  placed.  The 
old  woman  who  had  admitted  us  now  disappeared, 
and  presently  returned  with  a  tambourine  and  two 
young  girls  coyly  veiled  with  white  lace  hoods. 
They  began  to  dance  to  the  sound  of  the  tambourine 
and  presently  uncovered  their  faces,  which  were  de- 
cidedly pretty,  though  one  had  a  snub  nose  and  the 
other's  mouth  was  too  large.  Their  eyes  were  glo- 
rious, and  one  could  see  at  a  glance  where  the  wom- 
en of  Spain  got  their  wonderful  eyes.  There  was  a 
roguish  expression  on  their  Moorish  faces,  and  a 
fascinating  smile  as  they  danced — not  the  forced, 
sickly  smile  of  European  ballet  girls,  but  the  natural, 
sweet  smile  of  girls  belonging  to  a  race  among 
which  women  depend  for  their  happiness  in  life 
more  even  than  elsewhere  on  their  power  to  please 
men.  Though  plump,  these  girls  were  not  as  fat  as 
the  Mohammedan  ideal  desires  them,  else  they  would 
have  probably  luxuriated  in  some  harem  instead  of 
dancing  before  foreigners. 


THE    "  INFIDEL   CITY5'    OF   MOROCCO       97 

When  we  regained  the  street  the  stillness  of  Tan- 
gier forced  itself  on  the  attention  more  than  ever, 
their  being  no  wagons,  no  noisy  groups  of  revellers, 
no  serenos  calling  out  the  time  of  night,  and  no 
street  criers — none,  in  short,  of  the  endless  noises 
which  make  life  in  Spanish  cities  intolerable  to  the 
nervous.  The  Kamadan  guns,  however,  were  a  tem- 
porary nuisance  of  no  slight  import,  especially  as 
they  were  placed  within  a  stone's  throw  of  the 
hotel.  In  the  evening,  the  explosion,  which  shook 
the  hotel  and  rattled  all  its  windows,  was  annoy- 
ing ;  in  the  morning,  before  sunrise,  simply  dis- 
gusting. The  voice  of  the  muezzin  could  also  be 
heard  at  intervals  from  the  minaret  of  a  mosque 
calling  the  faithful  to  prayers  ;  but  this  voice  in  the 
air  was  not  loud,  and  rather  pleasant  than  other- 
wise. Then  there  was  another  musical  phenomenon 
which  would  have  been  pleasanter  in  the  daytime 
than  after  midnight.  About  eleven  o'clock,  and  at 
intervals  thereafter,  a  long-drawn  trumpet  note  was 
heard,  beginning  softly  and  swelling  to  a  loud  cli- 
max, followed  by  a  decrescendo — very  much  like  the 
trumpet  solo  which  opens  the  overture  to  Wagner's 
"  Bienzi."  In  the  morning  I  was  awakened  by  the 
bellowing  of  cattle,  and  looking  down  into  the  har- 
bor saw  dozens  of  oxen  standing  up  to  their  bellies 
in  the  water,  whence  they  were  driven  on  inclined 
planes  into  a  flat  boat  and  conveyed  to  the  steamer 
7 


98  SPAIN  AND  MOROCCO 

•which  was  to  carry  them  to  the  beef-eating  Britons 
of  Gibraltar.  This  steamer  was  to  have  taken  me 
too,  but  I  had  made  up  my  mind  to  stay  and  go  to 
Tetuan  on  horseback,  with  my  guide  and  one  of  the 
sultan's  soldiers. 


YII 

ON    HORSEBACK  TO  TETUAN 

Getting  a  Soldier. — Canaries  and  Flowers. — A  Unique  Inn. 
—  A  Mohammedan  Rooster. — African  Donkeys. — The 
Jewish  Quarter. — Why  the  Jews  Emigrate  to  America. — 
Oriental  Scenes. — African  Tea  and  Coffee. — Negroes  and 
Riffians. 

A  TRIP  from  Tangier  to  Tetuan,  forty-five  miles 
along  the  northern  coast  of  Africa,  is  considered 
perfectly  safe  for  tourists,  provided  they  go  under 
the  escort  of  a  Moroccan  soldier.  Not  that  the  soli- 
tary soldier,  with  his  old-fashioned  rifle,  could  do 
much  to  defend  one  in  case  of  attack,  but  by  engag- 
ing him  the  tourist  places  himself  under  the  Sultan's 
protection  and  renders  an  attack  improbable,  even 
from  the  semi-independent  hill-tribes.  The  ambas- 
sador or  consul  of  the  nation  by  which  the  traveller 
swears,  provides  the  services  of  the  soldier.  Early  in 
the  afternoon  I  had  sent  my  guide  to  the  American 
consulate  with  a  request  for  a  soldier ;  but  the  Consul 
happened  to  be  on  a  mission  to  the  Sultan  at  Fez  ; 
and  the  cat  being  away,  his  secretary  sent  me  a 
playful  note  saying  it  was  too  late  to  get  a  soldier 


100  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

for  the  next  day,  but  that  "  steps  will  be  taken  to- 
morrow to  secure  one."  This  note  I  took  to  Mr. 
Ansaldo,  the  obliging  proprietor  of  the  Continental 
Hotel,  wondering  how  many  "steps "the  secretary 
could  take  in  a  day,  and  how  many  days  would  be 
required  to  get  the  soldier.  Mr.  Ansaldo  was  highly 
indignant  at  the  secretary's  conduct,  and  said  he 
himself  would  undertake  to  get  the  man  for  me ; 
and  half  an  hour  later  the  soldier  was  introduced  to 
me  to  get  his  instructions.  The  question  naturally 
occurred  to  me  whether  the  consul's  secretary  at 
Tangier  was  earning  his  salary. 

Mahomet,  my  guide,  rapped  at  my  door  at  four 
o'clock  next  morning,  and  packed  the  lunch  on  his 
horse  while  I  took  my  breakfast ;  and  half  an  hour 
later,  at  the  first  signs  of  dawn,  we  noisily  galloped 
down  the  deserted  streets,  waking  up  the  paupers 
who  had  made  their  bed  on  the  sidewalk — or  rather 
the  place  where  the  sidewalk  ought  to  be.  The  city 
gates  were  still  closed,  but  a  gratuity  to  the  keeper 
easily  opened  one  of  them,  and  we  rode  out  past 
some  more  groups  of  somnolents,  apparently  waiting 
for  the  gates  to  be  opened  for  them.  At  first  the 
road  followed  the  deserted  beach,  but  after  a  mile 
or  two  we  struck  into  the  interior,  across  some  huge 
sand-banks  looking  like  glaciers  in  the  dim  light. 
We  passed  some  villages  on  the  hill  sides,  pictur- 
esquely buried  amid  rich  tropical  vegetation — figs, 


ON   HORSEBACK   TO   TETTJAN  101 

cactus,  aloes,  etc. — and  otherwise  so  extremely  Afri- 
can in  the  structure  of  the  houses  and  general 
aspect,  that  no  one  could  have  dreamed  that  Europe 
was  visible  from  the  summits  of  neighboring  hills. 
Presently  a  brook  appeared  to  the  right,  lined  with 
oleanders  and  other  trees,  the  branches  of  which 
were  musical  with  the  song  of  numerous  canary 
birds.  It  was  pleasant  to  think  that  these  songsters 
might  have  but  recently  left  the  neighboring  Canary 
Islands  ;  and  their  song  of  freedom  was  infinitely 
more  pleasing  than  that  of  the  poor  captives  in  our 
cities,  whose  notes  are  much  too  loud  for  a  parlor, 
while  here  in  the  open  air  they  rivalled  those  of  the 
skylark  or  nightingale  in  sweetness. 

The  oleanders  grew  more  and  more  abundant 
until  they  gave  the  whole  landscape  a  rose-colored 
tint,  like  Persian  rose  fields.  But  the  guide  did  not 
seem  to  care  either  for  canaries  or  oleanders ;  for 
when  I  asked  him  what  was  the  Arabic  name  for 
oleander,  he  replied  contemptuously :  "  Oh,  they  no 
good."  I  doubt  if  he  even  realized  what  a  pictur- 
esque group  we  made  amid  the  green  shrubbery, 
he  with  a  red  turban,  the  soldier  with  a  whitish  one, 
and  mine  red  with  a  cincture  below  of  white  lawn. 
The  soldier  rode  a  long-legged  mule  which  took  pro- 
vokingly  long  steps,  so  that  the  guide  and  I,  with 
our  small  horses,  constantly  had  to  trot  or  gallop 
to  keep  up  with  him  ;  and  walking  was  the  only 


102  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

tolerable  mode  of  procedure  on  the  abominable 
road,  which  is  a  mere  donkey-path,  never  used  by  a 
wagon,  and  full  of  stones  and  other  impediments. 
And  this  the  only  road  between  two  of  the  principal 
cities  of  the  Sultan's  realms  !  We  met  a  few  parties 
on  donkeys,  and  a  number  of  natives  on  foot,  some 
of  whom  had  pleasant  faces  and  greeted  us  in  Arabic, 
while  on  the  faces  of  others  religious  fanaticism  and 
hatred  of  the  foreigner  were  plainly  painted.  Not 
a  few  were  armed,  and  had  any  of  them  been  in  a 
bellicose  mood,  they  might  have  bagged  us  all  three 
before  my  soldier  would  have  had  time  to  get  his 
rifle  into  position,  it  being  wrapped  up  carefully  in 
a  red  flannel  bag,  tied  up  at  both  ends !  And  such 
a  rifle !  almost  ten  feet  long,  with  a  single  barrel, 
and  most  primitive  lock,  and  no  doubt  an  exact 
copy  of  the  first  rifle  ever  made.  In  view  of  this 
fact,  it  did  not  seem  to  make  much  difference  that 
the  soldier  was  generally  half  a  mile  in  front  or  be- 
hind us,  or  that  the  guide  should  carry  the  harm- 
less implement  half  the  time. 

Noticeable  among  the  natives  whom  we  passed 
were  some  shepherds,  with  massive  lirnbs  like  Ro- 
man gladiators,  which  led  me  to  ask  the  guide  if 
that  was  the  reason  they  were  called  musclemen  ; 
but  he  only  stared  and  looked  blank.  Happy 
youth !  He  had  evidently  never  been  punned  at  be- 
fore. The  large  flocks  of  sheep,  goats,  and  cattle 


ON   HORSEBACK   TO  TETUAN  103 

under  the  care  of  these  gladiators  added  life  to  the 
fine  landscape,  with  its  splendid  mountainous  back- 
ground. All  along  the  road  were  excellent  grazing 
grounds,  well  adapted  for  the  plough  ;  but  hardly 
any  of  it  was  devoted  to  agricultural  purposes.  The 
Moors  might  easily  alleviate  their  indescribable 
poverty  by  raising  wheat  for  European  markets; 
but  their  religion  does  not  allow  them  to  raise  grain 
for  infidels.  Their  religion,  likewise,  is  the  only 
thing  that  renders  the  interior  of  the  country  un- 
safe for  foreigners,  and  prevents  them  from  intro- 
ducing the  comforts  of  civilization.  Indeed,  if  any 
one  should  ask  if  religion  has  done  more  good  or 
harm  in  the  world,  the  answer,  so  far  as  Morocco 
is  concerned,  could  not  be  dubious. 

The  guide  suggested  it  would  be  advisable  to 
rest  during  the  hottest  hours  of  the  day,  and 
asked  if  I  wished  to  stop  for  lunch  at  the  Fondak 
or  at  a  spring  a  short  distance  before  reaching  it  ? 
I  decided  in  favor  of  the  Fondak,  as  I  wished  to  see 
that  curious  place  ;  nor  did  I  regret  the  decision, 
for  never  had  I  seen  a  place  so  awful  in  its  loneli- 
ness or  so  unique  a  daub  of  local  color.  It  is  an 
I  immense,  solitary,  square,  stone  building  surround- 
ing a  large  unpaved  courtyard,  in  which  the  animals 
are  fed,  while  all  around  the  walls  are  small  and 
dirty  rooms  for  the  use  of  travellers,  who,  however, 
if  so  unfortunate  as  to  have  to  spend  the  night  here, 


104  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

generally  prefer  the  terrace  as  camping  ground. 
Two  men,  and  a  boy  who  looked  like  a  girl,  seemed 
to  have  charge  of  the  place,  and  of  them  the  guide 
purchased  a  bale  of  hay  for  our  animals  before  he 
proceeded  to  spread  the  lunch  in  a  shady  nook  just 
inside  the  door.  After  I  had  carved  the  meat  I 
offered  some  to  the  soldier  and  the  guide,  but 
they  only  shook  their  heads  with  a  sad  smile.  The 
Kamadan  was  not  yet  over,  and  the  poor  fellows, 
tired,  thirsty,  and  hungry,  had  to  sit  by  and  see 
me,  like  a  selfish  brute,  consuming  the  chicken, 
eggs,  and  oranges,  and  the  bottle  of  Val  de  Perias, 
while  they  were  not  allowed  to  touch  a  morsel  or 
a  drop  till  sunset.  Morpheus  took  pity  on  them, 
and  soon  they  were  fast  asleep,  wrapped  entirely 
in  their  cloaks,  like  silkworms  in  their  cocoons. 
The  guardians  of  the  place,  after  watching  me  at 
my  sacrilegious  lunch,  had  also  retired,  apparently 
for  a  siesta  ;  and  all  was  silent  as  a  tomb. 

A  number  of  birds,  which  came  in  and  boldly 
picked  up  the  crumbs  at  my  feet,  emphasized  the 
loneliness  of  the  place.  On  the  way  I  had  noticed 
several  cranes  which  had  allowed  us  to  come  very 
near  them  without  stirring  ;  and  when  I  expressed 
my  surprise,  the  guide  explained  that  these  birds 
were  sacred,  and  therefore  never  molested.  This 
religious  protection  seemed  to  extend  to  the  small 
birds,  judging  by  their  tameness.  Here  was  one  of 


ON   HORSEBACK   TO   TETUAN  105 

the  pleasant  aspects  of  the  Mohammedan  religion  ; 
but  it  seemed  a  pity  that  the  Prophet  did  not  ex- 
tend his  protection  to  some  other  animals,  notably 
that  poor  beast  of  all  work,  the  donkey,  whom  his 
followers  treat  with  such  indescribable  brutality. 
In  the  courtyard  was  a  rooster  with  his  harem — the 
first  of  the  Mohammedan  persuasion  I  had  ever 
seen.  He  was  a  nobler  animal  than  many  a  Chris- 
tian rooster  I  have  seen,  and  might  have  taught  his 
master  a  useful  lesson.  When  a  Moor  travels  he 
selfishly  sits  on  his  donkey  or  camel,  and  lets  his 
heavily-laden  wife  walk  along  behind  ;  and  when  he 
eats,  the  wife  comes  in  at  the  end  for  the  crumbs. 
Not  so  with  this  rooster.  He,  too,  was  a  polygamist, 
and  could  not  prevent  his  wives  from  persecuting 
one  another  ;  but  in  gallantry  he  set  a  noble  exam- 
ple to  the  Moor.  He  was  the  first  to  discover  the 
remnants  of  my  lunch,  but  not  a  crumb  would  he 
touch  before  he  had  loudly  summoned  all  the 
chickens,  old  and  young,  and  given  them  an  equal 
chance,  and  more. 

Leaving  them  to  their  feast,  I  went  outside  to 
have  a  look  at  the  grand  scenic  surroundings  of  the 
place  ;  high  mountains  on  all  sides,  covered  with  a 
green  carpet,  and  here  and  there  a  spacious  fig  or 
other  tree  inviting  to  repose  in  its  shade.  A  brisk 
breeze  was  blowing,  tempered  by  the  sun,  and  so 
delicious  in  quality  that  I  could  not  but  think  that 


106  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

here  would  be  one  of  the  finest  places  for  invalids 
in  the  world,  if  some  one  would  have  sufficient  en- 
terprise to  build  a  hotel  and  make  it  known  to  the 
world.  The  place  is  lonely,  but  no  lover  of  nature 
would  ever  tire  of  it,  the  flora  alone  offering  endless 
amusement.  In  ten  minutes  I  had  collected  a  choice 
bouquet  that  would  have  been  worth  several  dollars 
in  New  York.  There  were  some  wild  flowers  that 
we  laboriously  cultivate  in  green-houses,  and  others 
new  to  me,  with  most  exquisite  forms,  colors,  and 
pencillings.  And  here  they  grow,  by  the  myriad, 
with  no  one  to  appreciate  them.  Yet,  notwithstand- 
ing the  guide's  "  Oh  !  they  no  good,"  it  is  possible 
that  these  African  flowers,  as  has  been  suggested, 
furnished  the  Moors  with  patterns  for  their  skilful 
embroideries  and  their  ornamental  work ;  and  they 
may  have  taught  them  to  scorn  the  European  hat  in 
favor  of  the  infinitely  more  becoming  turban. 

On  returning  to  the  Fondak  I  found  that  some 
one  had  stolen  my  corkscrew,  and  that  my  guide  and 
soldier  were  still  fast  asleep.  I  couldn't  tell  them 
apart  in  their  cocoons,  and  shook  the  soldier  by 
mistake.  He  started  up  nervously  and  seemed  to 
grasp  for  his  gun  ;  probably  fancying  a  hill- tribe 
attack ;  for  he  must  have  known,  as  well  as  the 
guide-book,  that  "  the  mountains  near  the  Fondak 
are  not  always  safe  camping  ground ; "  that  the 
Fondak  was  built  for  protection  against  these  tribes  ; 


ON   HORSEBACK    TO   TETUAX  107 

and  that  the  soldier  "  is  responsible  with  his  life  for 
the  tourist's  safety." 

Shortly  after  leaving  the  Fondak  we  had  some 
blood-curdling  evidence  of  the  ferocity  of  these  hill 
tribes.  On  descending  the  mountain  we  came  across 
a  brook,  and  a  short  distance  from  the  road  some 
sheets  and  blankets,  which  had  been  washed  in  it, 
were  lying  to  dry  on  an  immense  rock  ;  they  were 
guarded  by  two  naked,  big-bellied  negro  boys  of 
thirteen  or  fourteen,  who,  notwithstanding  my  con- 
ciliatory turban  and  the  soldier's  flannel-swathed 
rifle,  shook  their  fists  at  us  and  used  threatening  lan- 
guage. However,  we  managed  to  make  our  escape 
without  loss  of  life.  It  would  be  decidedly  unpleas- 
ant to  flee  from  an  enemy  in  this  region,  for  the  road 
became  worse  and  worse  as  we  proceeded,  now 
winding  along  a  steep  hill-side  and  again  following 
the  bed  of  a  stream,  full  of  large  stones.  Never, 
not  even  in  the  most  inaccessible  alpine  passes,  had 
I  seen  such  a  rough  road,  and  I  can  well  believe 
that  the  trip  which  we  made  in  eleven  hours  takes 
four  or  five  more  in  rainy  weather.  From  the  top  of 
a  hill  which  we  crossed  we  had  a  fine  glimpse  of  the 
Mediterranean  and  of  Tetuan  almost  three  hours 
before  we  reached  it.  It  was  like  a  glimpse  of  a 
snow-field  lying  between  two  high  mountains ;  and 
then  it  vanished,  not  to  appear  in  sight  again  for  two 
hours.  My  horse,  affected  by  the  great  heat,  began 


108  SPAIN   AND    MOROCCO 

to  show  symptoms  of  fatigue  or  laziness,  and  the 
guide,  who  rode  behind,  encouraged  him  with  Ara^ 
bic  expletives,  and  an  energetic  "  Cid  "  every  five 
minutes.  He  was  not  a  very  good  horse,  and  this 
was  probably  the  reason  why  he  was  called  Cid,  in 
retaliation  for  the  harm  inflicted  on  the  Moors  some 
centuries  ago  by  the  famous  Spanish  hero.  Revenge 
is  sweet.  But  Cid  had  his  revenge  too,  for  one  time 
when  Mahomet  struck  him  with  his  whip  he  lifted 
up  his  right  leg  and  let  it  go  at  the  guide's  shin- 
bone,  which  drew  blood  and  an  oath  and  made  him 
limp  during  our  sojourn  at  Tetuan. 

As  we  drew  nearer  to  the  city,  we  met  more  and 
more  natives,  mostly  peasants  returning  from  the 
market-place — Tetuan's  market  being  a  day  later 
than  Tangier's.  On  leaving  Tetuan  very  early  in 
the  morning,  two  days  later,  we  met  these  same 
people  bound  for  the  city,  with  loads  of  wood, 
charcoal,  grass,  and  fruits,  some  of  them  at  a  dis- 
tance of  two  hours'  ride  from  Tetuan.  The  donkeys 
were  loaded  down  to  their  utmost  capacity,  and 
what  they  could  not  carry  was  loaded  on  the 
women,  who  were  always  on  foot — among  them 
girls  of  no  more  than  fifteen  years  of  age — while  the 
men  generally  sat  on  the  donkeys,  calmly  smoking 
a  pipe.  Most  of  these  donkeys  were  very  small,  and 
the  men  so  long  that  their  legs  scraped  the  ground, 
reminding  one  of  Thackeray's  remarks  about  the 


ON   HORSEBACK   TO   TETUAN  109 

Orientals  who  "  descend  "  on  their  donkeys.  There 
is  something  marvellous  in  the  strength  and  endur- 
ance of  these  diminutive  beasts,  and  their  patient 
tolerance  of  all  their  undeserved  floggings  and  the 
ugly  wounds  worn  by  their  cruel  burdens.  The 
African  donkey  is  a  patient  animal.  He  does  not 
often  complain  of  his  unjust  treatment.  But  when 
he  does  lift  up  his  voice,  it  contains  the  sonorous 
quintessence  of  all  his  suppressed  woes.  Nor  is  he 
always  as  stupid  as  his  unfortunate  reputation.  In 
the  market-place  at  Tangier  I  saw  one  lying  down 
flat  on  his  side  in  order  to  rest  his  heavy  burden  on 
the  ground  ;  and  at  Tetuan  I  saw  a  donkey-fight 
(caused  by  jealousy)  which  evinced  much  sagacity. 
One  of  them  repeatedly  placed  himself  in  such  a 
position  that  his  hind  legs  faced  the  neck  and  head 
of  his  rival,  on  whom  he  then  proceeded  to  rain  a 
shower  of  vigorous  kicks,  prestissimo,  till  the  other 
brayed  for  mercy.  But  in  'one  respect  even  the 
African  donkey  is  open  to  further  enlightenment 
Our  road  was  often  narrow  and  winding — a  mere 
rut  worn  deeply  into  the  soil ;  and  the  donkeys  we 
met,  though  they  usually  made  room  for  us  to  pass 
themselves,  never  allowed  for  their  broad  loads, 
thus  subjecting  us  to  the  danger  of  being  brushed 
off  our  horses.  This  was  done  with  such  aggravat- 
ing persistency  that  one  could  not  but  conclude  it 
was  for  this  that  they  were  originally  called  donkeys. 


110  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

In  these  situations  it  was  amusing  to  see  the  Moors 
pushing  them  bodily  aside  as  if  they  had  weighed 
no  more  than  a  sheep,  or  else  using  their  tails  to 
steer  them  by.  Some  of  the  natives  politely  made 
way  for  us,  while  others  stubbornly  asserted  their 
right  of  way.  In  steep  places,  where  a  collision 
might  have  been  attended  by  serious  consequences, 
the  soldier  always  stopped  in  the  middle  of  the 
path  until  I  had  come  up,  thus  compelling  the 
natives  to  make  a  detour.  All  of  which  trials  and 
tribulations  we  infidels  obviate  by  building  railways 
between  our  principal  cities.  But  it  will  be  a  long 
while  before  the  Moroccans  can  afford  to  build  a 
railroad.  An  Englishman  at  Seville  remarked  to 
me  that  he  always  estimated  the  general  wealth  of 
a  town  or  region  in  Spain  by  the  comparative 
number  of  horses,  mules,  and  donkeys.  On  this 
principle  Morocco  must  be  the  poorest  land  in  the 
world — the  donkey-land  par  excellence,  with  a  few 
camels  thrown  in  for  variety.  Just  before  we  entered 
the  gate  of  Tetuan  we  met  a  caravan  of  these  hid- 
eous beasts,  bringing  up  the  rear  of  the  market  pro- 
cession. 

The  approach  to  Tetuan  is  remarkably  impressive. 
Its  general  aspect  is  as  white  as  Cadiz,  even  the 
walls  which  encircle  the  city  being  painted  white 
as  snow.  To  the  left  this  white  wall  runs  far 
up  to  the  hill,  enclosing  what  looks  like  a  citadel, 


ON  HOESEBACK   TO  TETUAN  111 

and  this  gives  a  unique  aspect  to  the  place.  To  the 
right  is  a  finely  shaped  high  mountain,  of  the  Atlas 
range,  which  is  said  to  be  the  abode  of  numerous 
monkeys  ;  the  cousins,  probably,  of  the  few  speci- 
mens which  are  still  to  be  seen  at  Gibraltar,  as  a 
reminder  of  the  time  when  the  Mediterranean  did 
not  yet  completely  separate  Europe  from  Africa. 
Not  long  ago,  it  is  said,  monkeys  were  so  plentiful 
at  Tetuan  that  they  cost  only  sixpence  a  piece.  As 
meat  is  dear  and  monkeys  are  good  to  eat,  I  ex- 
pected one  on  toast  for  breakfast,  but  was  doomed 
to  disappointment  At  the  gate  we  were  stopped 
and  the  soldier's  gun  taken  away  from  him,  to  be 
kept  until  we  left  again.  Then  we  rode  through 
some  "streets,"  like  those  of  Tangier,  only  "more 
so,"  until  we  drew  up  in  front  of  a  most  dismal 
and  forbidding  building.  This,  the  guide  explained 
to  my  horror,  was  the  "  hotel."  A  man  came  out 
and  greeted  me  in  Spanish,  and  I  inquired,  after 
scanning  the  building,  if  he  had  a  room  with  a 
window.  He  had  none,  and  I  told  the  guide  I 
would  not  stay  there  under  any  circumstances,  and 
asked  if  there  was  no  other  inn.  "  Yes,"  he  said, 
"  Nahon's,  in  the  Jewish  quarter."  Now  I  had  told 
the  rascal  in  the  morning  that  I  wanted  to  go  to 
Nahon's,  but  his  anti-Semitic  proclivities,  or  a  desire 
to  make  a  bargain  for  bringing  me  there,  had  led 
him  to  take  me  to  the  Spanish  inn.  So  we  turned 


112  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

about  and  soon  reached  the  Jewish  quarter,  after 
passing  through  a  special  gate  which  is  locked  up  at 
night,  no  Jew  being  allowed  to  enter  the  Moorish 
quarters  after  sunset  unless  he  does  as  we  did  sub- 
sequently, and  convinces  the  keeper  with  a  small 
piece  of  silver  that  he  has  important  business  to 
attend  to. 

The  Jewish  quarter  is  not  a  bit  cleaner  than  any 
other  part  of  Tetuan  ;  the  only  apparent  difference 
being  that  in  the  Jewish  streets  vegetable  garbage 
seems  to  predominate,  while  in  the  Moorish  the 
nose  is  more  offended  by  animal  refuse.  Some  of 
the  streets  were  regular  cellar-vaults,  being  spanned 
by  broad  stone  arches  ;  an  exaggeration  of  the  Span- 
ish method  of  extending  canvas  over  the  streets  to 
keep  out  the  sun  ;  and  I  have  no  doubt  that  in  mid- 
summer these  vaulted  streets  are  the  only  tolerable 
ones  in  Tetuan.  The  streets  were  crowded  "with 
children,  and  some  of  the  larger  boys  endeavored  to 
show  off  their  educational  attainments  by  greeting 
me  with  a  loud  "Bon  Soir,  Mosoo  !  "  As  we  entered 
the  side  street  in  which  Nahon's  hotel  is  situated,  two 
of  them  even  grasped  my  horse  by  the  bridle  to  pre- 
vent it  from  slipping  on  the  smooth  stone  pavement. 
The  host,  Mr.  Isaac  S.  Nahon,  British  consular  agent 
for  Tetuan,  received  us  in  person,  and  took  us  into 
his  house,  with  its  usual  Moorish  patio  or  central 
court.  Mr.  Nahon  wears  European  clothes  and  a 


ON   HORSEBACK  TO  TETUAN  113 

Derby  hat,  as  becomes  his  position,  speaks  English 
fluently,  and  provides  tourists  with  various  comforts 
which  are  all  the  more  appreciated  after  riding 
through  the  forbidding  streets.  He  gave  me  the 
choice  of  several  rooms,  one  on  top  of  the  house 
with  three  windows,  whence  I  could  enjoy  a  fine 
mountainous  prospect  on  two  sides,  and  a  bird's- 
eye  view  of  half  the  terraced  city.  This,  of  course, 
I  chose,  admitting  the  delicious  night-air  at  all  the 
three  windows,  and  soon  fell  soundly  asleep,  think- 
ing of  the  narrow  escape  from  the  windowless  Span- 
ish inn,  and  regardless  of  the  fact  that  I  was  doubly 
locked  in,  first  in  the  Jewish  quarter,  and,  secondly, 
within  the  walls  of  Tetuan. 

Tetuan  is  considered  one  of  the  headquarters  of 
the  Hebrew  race ;  and,  according  to  Hooker  and 
Ball,  it  "  boasts  of  being  the  cradle  of  more  wealthy 
Jewish  families  than  any  other  town  in  the  world." 
Their  chief  occupation  is  gold  embroidery  on  velvet 
and  silk,  and  some,  probably,  brought  a  part  of 
their  wealth  along  from  Spain,  when  they  were  ex- 
pelled from  that  country.  That  was  four  centuries 
ago,  but  they  still  use  the  Spanish  language  in  their 
families  ;  and  it  makes  a  most  agreeable  impression 
on  a  tourist  in  this  howling  African  wilderness  to  see 
a  pretty  Jewish  maiden  coming  into  the  hotel  patio, 
and  saying  her  "  Buenas  noches,  Sefior,"  with  a 
sweet  smile.  Mr.  Nahon  told  me  that  many  of.  his 
8 


114  SPAItf  AND  MOROCCO 

race  are  leaving  Tetuan  and  emigrating  to  America, 
chiefly  to  Boston  ;  and  I  could  not  but  admit  that 
that  suburb  of  Cambridge  must  be,  on  the  whole, 
a  pleasant er  place  for  them  to  live  in  than  Tetuan. 
Though  they  are  locked  up  at  night,  they  have 
otherwise  about  the  same  privileges  as  at  Tangier, 
whereas  at  Fez  Jews  are  not  allowed  to  wear  shoes, 
but  must  go  barefooted ;  nor  can  they  ride  on 
horses,  which  are  considered  too  noble  animals  for 
them.  They  are  personally  exempt  from  military 
service,  but  have  to  furnish  an  equivalent  in  cash. 
It  seems  difficult  to  understand  why  any  of  them 
should  remain  in  such  a  place,  but  the  government 
places  special  impediments  in  the  way  of  those  who 
wish  to  emigrate.  Were  these  removed,  Tetuan, 
which  is  already  half -depopulated  (having  houses  for 
forty  thousand  inhabitants  and  only  half  as  many  to 
fill  them),  would,  perhaps,  soon  be  deserted  entirely, 
BO  far  as  the  seven  thousand  five  hundred  Jews  in  it 
are  concerned.  There  is  not  a  single  policeman — 
not  even  a  sereno — in  this  or  any  other  Morocco 
town,  to  protect  life  and  property ;  nor  can  the  sit- 
uation of  Tetuan  be  healthy,  to  judge  by  the  pallor 
of  the  inhabitants.  In  case  of  sickness,  there  are 
no  doctors  ;  although,  thanks  to  Sir  Moses  Monte- 
fiore,  a  few  apothecary  shops  (and  schools)  have  been 
introduced. 

In  personal  appearance  the  Jews  of  Tetuan  are 


ON  HORSEBACK  TO  TETUAN  115 

greatly  superior  to  the  Moors,  the  children  especial- 
ly being  very  pretty ;  and  among  the  women  not  a 
few  are  conspicuous  for  physical  beauty.  Hooker 
and  Ball  think  that  the  facial  beauty  of  these  Jew- 
esses is  lacking  in  expression.  This,  no  doubt,  is 
often  true  ;  but  how  could  it  be  otherwise  in  such  a 
dreary,  stupid,  out-of-the-world  town  ?  Tetuan 
seems  to  have  been  built  where  it  is,  by  the  water- 
loving  Moors,  on  account  of  the  numerous  springs 
and  rivulets  in  the  neighborhood  ;  and  it  is  pos- 
sible that  with  superior  sanitary  arrangements  it 
might  be  made  into  a  habitable  and  even  an  at- 
tractive place,  for  its  site,  as  I  have  said,  is  remark- 
ably fine.  But  as  things  are  managed  at  present,  a 
prudent  foreigner  would  no  more  dream  of  tasting 
the  city's  water  than  he  would  in  Fez,  where  he  runs 
the  risk  of  drinking  the  water  in  which  five  hundred 
beauties  of  the  Sultan's  harem  have  taken  their  morn- 
ing bath.  Mr.  Nahon  told  me  that  he  has  had  so 
much  trouble  with  water  that  he  now  has  it  specially 
brought  down  from  the  mountain  for  his  family  and 
guests  ;  and  this  is  only  another  illustration  of  the 
way  in  which  he  discharges  his  duties  as  a  host. 
He  showed  me  his  hotel  register,  exactly  fifty  years 
old,  with  the  comments  of  hundreds  of  tourists  on 
the  trip,  on  Tetuan,  and  on  the  host ;  and  it  speaks 
volumes  in  favor  of  Mr.  Nahon  and  his  father,  who 
preceded  him,  that  there  is  only  one  that  was  so 


116  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

unfavorable  in  its  comments  that  he  deemed  it  ex- 
pedient to  ink  it  over.  He  also  has  a  small  library, 
consisting  chiefly  of  books  of  travel  in  which  Tetuan 
and  his  hotel  are  mentioned. 

After  breakfast  the  guide  came  to  the  hotel  and 
we  went  out  to  see  the  city.  The  soldier  also  joined 
us  outside  of  the  Jewish  quarter,  without  uniform, 
gun,  or  badge  of  any  sort  to  distinguish  him  from 
civilians  ;  I  believe  the  Moroccan  army  has  no  regu- 
lar uniform.  Before  we  had  been  out  five  minutes 
I  realized  that  foreigners  are  much  rarer  in  Tetuan 
than  at  Tangier,  and  that  if  a  popular  vote  had 
been  taken  the  majority  would  have  decided  that 
I  was  the  greatest  curiosity  in  the  city.  All  the 
children  and  women  turned,  after  we  had  passed, 
to  look  at  us ;  and  if  any  one  wishes  to  know  how 
it  feels  to  be  a  king  or  a  white  elephant  or  a  lion  of 
any  sort,  he  ought  to  go  to  Tetuan.  Whenever  we 
passed  a  group  of  men  they  whispered  something 
which  the  guide  told  me  meant  "  A  European."  In 
Spain  I  had  to  put  up  with  the  indignity  of  being 
called  an  "Inglese,"  and  here  I  had  to  swallow  the 
still  greater,  because  more  comprehensive,  insult  of 
being  called  a  European  ;  but  what  could  I  do  with 
but  a  single  soldier  against  all  the  Sultan's  forces  ? 

To  me  the  greatest  curiosity  in  town  was  a  number 
of  women  (from  the  country,  the  guide  said)  wear- 
ing enormous  hideous  hats,  with  brims  at  least 


ON   HORSEBACK   TO  TETUAN  117 

eighteen  inches  wide,  without  the  slightest  exaggera- 
tion— so  wide  in  fact,  that  they  had  to  be  held  up 
by  means  of  four  strings  attached  to  the  crown. 
Beyond  a  doubt,  if  a  member  of  the  Parisian  demi- 
monde should  chance  to  see  one  of  these  hats  they 
would  be  worn  the  following  season  by  fashionable 
women  the  world  over.  In  Africa,  under  the  glar- 
ing sun,  they  seemed  sensible  enough ;  but  why  a 
nation  which  has  practical  sense  enough  to  invent 
such  hats  should  persist  in  the  intolerable  habit  of 
painting  every  square  inch  of  surface  in  the  cities 
a  glaring  white,  passes  comprehension.  Stutfield, 
speaking  of  the  city  of  Morocco,  says  that  "  half 
the  population  seems  to  be  semi-blind,  or  to  squint 
in  an  extraordinary  manner  ;  "  and  the  same  is  true 
of  Tetuan.  Eye-glasses,  either  plain  or  colored, 
seems  to  be  unknown  in  this  country.  The  monot- 
ony of  this  everlasting  whiteness  soon  becomes  as 
wearisome  to  the  mind  as  to  the  eyes. 

In  another  sense,  too,  the  streets  of  Tetuan  are 
monotonous,  owing  to  the  curious  division  of  labor, 
BO  to  speak,  among  them.  The  principal  industries 
are  gun-making  and  leather  goods,  and  to  these 
trades  whole  streets  are  given  up.  Other  streets 
consist  entirely  of  butcher-shops,  or  blacksmiths,  or 
carpenters,  or  grocers.  In  the  grocers'  street  we 
did  not  remain  more  than  a  minute  as  there  were 
everywhere  huge  pots  of  rancid  butter,  the  "  carry- 


118  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

ing  qualities  "  of  which  (as  the  operatic  critics  say 
of  voices)  were  as  good  as  those  of  Limburger 
cheese,  and  made  us  beat  a  precipitate  retreat.  We 
went  into  one  of  the  gunsmith's  shops,  where  the 
long,  odd  rifles  of  the  country  were  being  made  in 
the  most  primitive  fashion,  one  man  turning  a 
wheel  and  the  other  holding  an  iron  rod  with  which 
the  hole  is  bored.  The  price  of  these  guns  is  from 
$5  up.  On  passing  through  the  market-place  we 
found  it  deserted,  except  for  a  band  of  camels  kneel- 
ing in  a  semicircle  as  if  saying  their  prayers  to  the 
Prophet.  But  on  closer  inspection  their  adoration 
proved  to  be  mere  cupboard  love  ;  they  were  eating 
their  grass. 

Near  the  market  is  a  large  building  in  which  the 
guide  and  soldier  had  established  their  quarters, 
which  I  asked  them  to  show  me.  Like  the  Fondak 
it  had  a  central  court  for  the  animals,  but  the  rooma 
for  the  drivers  were  upstairs  and  consisted  of  little 
holes  in  the  wall,  about  ten  feet  by  six,  with  a  win- 
dowless  opening  for  air  and  a  straw  mattress  in  one 
corner,  while  in  another  were  some  loaves  of  bread 
and  a  pot  of  raw  meat,  ready  to  be  cooked  in  time 
for  the  Karaadan  gun  proclaiming  the  end  of  the 
daily  fast.  For  this  room  the  guide  and  the  sol- 
dier paid  a  penny  a  day,  they  said ;  which  enables 
one  to  understand  how  the  Moroccan  soldiers  can 
live  on  the  twelve  cents  a  day  which  the  Sultan  pays 


ON  HORSEBACK   TO  TETUAN  119 

them,  they  finding  their  own  food.  Under  these 
circumstances  the  ten  pesetas  a  day  which  I  paid 
the  soldier — the  services  of  the  mule  and  the  mili- 
tary man  being  impartially  rated  at  a  dollar  each — 
must  have  seemed  a  princely  salary  to  him.  The 
guide  received  $1.50  a  day,  and  the  whole  expenses 
of  the  trip — three  men  and  three  animals  for  three 
days,  feed  and  hotel  included — did  not  amount  to 
twenty-five  dollars. 

When  we  left  this  building  my  companions  were 
greatly  amused  and  burst  out  laughing  at  a  beggar 
who  called  me  "selyar"  which  was  as  near  as  he 
could  get  to  sefior.  He  was  the  only  one  who  ac- 
costed me  in  Tetuan. 

The  only  public  place  of  amusement  in  this  city 
of  twenty-two  thousand  inhabitants  is  the  cafe,  and 
to  it  we  repaired  in  the  evening.  It  is  smaller  than 
the  cafe  at  Tangier,  having  only  one  room  and,  on 
this  occasion  at  least,  there  was  no  music.  The  na- 
tives squatted  on  the  carpet  of  a  slightly-raised  plat- 
form, having  left  their  shoes  pell-mell  at  the  lower 
level.  How  they  ever  find  out  which  is  which  when 
they  leave,  is  hard  to  say.  The  proprietor,  or  cook, 
had  a  stand  in  one  corner,  on  which  was  a  small 
boiler  with  an  open  fire  beneath.  He  put  two  tea- 
spoonfuls  of  a  black  semi-liquid  substance  into  a 
little  kettle  with  a  handle,  about  the  size  of  a  small 
coffee-cup,  added  hot  water,  stirred  it,  and  the  cof- 


120  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

fee  was  ready  for  use.  It  had  the  genuine  flavor 
of  coffee,  but  was  spoilt  apparently  by  the  addition 
of  some  drug.  Among  the  Moors  were  several  full- 
blooded  Negroes,  who  were  treated  by  everyone  on 
terms  of  perfect  equality  ;  nor  did  they  seem  in  any 
way  inferior  to  their  associates.  Color  is  no  stigma 
in  Morocco,  and  even  the  sultan  is  said  to  have  a 
tinge  of  Negro  blood  in  his  veins.  Some  of  them 
are  soldiers,  and  the  majority  come  from  the  Sou- 
dan. The  air  in  the  cafe  was  so  redolent  of  keef- 
smoke,  and  so  disagreeably  close,  that  I  soon  begged 
the  guide  to  take  me  back  to  the  hotel.  He  left  his 
cup  of  tea  and  mint  on  the  bench  to  await  his  re- 
turn, and  steered  me  back  to  headquarters,  passing 
on  the  way  another  extremely  Oriental  scene — a 
story-teller  sitting  in  a  booth  behind  a  sort  of  screen 
and  singing  his  story,  which  was  listened  to  by  a 
crowd  of  grave-looking  Moors. 

At  six  o'clock  in  the  morning  we  were  again  in 
our  saddles,  bound  for  Tangier.  Once  more  we 
stopped  for  lunch  at  the  Fondak,  and  while  the 
guide  and  soldier  were  asleep,  one  of  the  attend- 
ants begged  me  for  some  money.  I  gave  him  a 
piece  of  silver,  which  seemed  to  astonish  him  exceed- 
ingly, and  he  said  I  was  "  muy  bueno."  The  present 
seemed  to  bear  its  fruit,  for  shortly  afterward  the 
guide  brought  me  my  corkscrew,  which  he  said  that 
man  had  found  "after  we  had  left."  This  was  a 


ON   HOKSEBACK   TO   TETUAN  121 

lie ;  he  had  "  found  "  it  before  we  left ;  but  no 
matter  ;  it  showed  that  one  can  be  a  thief  without 
being  a  Christian.  Nothing  worthy  of  note  occurred 
on  our  return-trip  except  that  we  met  a  band  of 
the  notorious  Kiffians,  all  armed  with  the  long  rifles 
of  the  country,  and  probably  some  minor  weapons 
concealed  about  their  persons.  There  were  about 
twenty  of  them,  of  most  forbidding  aspect,  and  as 
they  obviously  did  not  intend  to  budge  an  inch  of 
the  path,  I  judged  it  would  pay  to  be  polite  and  dis- 
creetly steered  to  the  right.  These  Kiffians  are  the 
hill-tribes  who  refuse  obedience  even  to  the  sultan, 
and  the  Moors  themselves  are  afraid  to  enter  their 
territory.  To  travel  as  far  to  the  east  of  Tetuan  as 
we  were  going  west,  would  have  been  sure  death. 
Stutfield,  in  El  Maghreb,  says,  "  these  Berbefs  may 
be  recognized  by  their  wild  appearance  and  the 
shaven  crown,  whence  grows  the  scalp  lock  by  which 
the  Angel  of  Death  is  to  pull  them  up  to  heaven  on 
the  last  day.  This  appendage  is  cultivated  with  the 
care  its  importance  demands,  for  on  its  reliability 
rests  the  Kiffian's  hope  of  a  blessed  immortality." 

One  more  very  African  scene  we  encountered  on 
the  way — three  almost  naked  negroes  lying  fast 
asleep  in  the  shade  of  some  trees  ;  and  at  three  o'clock 
we  felt  so  warm  ourselves  that  we  made  another 
rest  under  an  enormous  fig-tree  and  idled  away  half 
an  hour  ;  we  reached  Tangier  early  in  the  evening, 


122  SPAIN  AND  MOEOCCO 

and,  as  good  luck  had  it,  it  was  on  the  next  day 
that  the  Eamadan  came  to  an  end.  On  this  occasion 
I  did  not  regret  the  levanter  which  had  lashed  the 
ocean  into  such  a  fury  that  the  small  boat  did  not 
venture  to  leave  for  Gibraltar.  The  departure  of 
"lent"  seemed  to  be  cause  for  great  rejoicing, 
for  the  Moors  were  all  gayly  decked  in  holiday  at- 
tire, regardless  of  expense.  The  whole  city  seemed 
transformed.  Instead  of  their  sombre  mantles 
the  men  wore  costumes  which  would  have  war- 
ranted them  in  joining  the  chorus  of  the  most 
sumptuous  operetta,  while  the  girls  were  dressed 
like  shop-window  dolls,  or  Japanese  princesses,  no 
two  alike.  It  was  a  day  of  good  will  toward  all 
men,  too,  for  whenever  Moor  met  Moor  they  stopped 
to  grasp  each  other's  hands  in  two  ways,  where- 
upon they  touched  them  with  the  lips.  Progress 
was  slow  under  these  circumstances,  and  I  was  glad 
I  had  discharged  my  guide,  for  it  would  have  taken 
us  ten  minutes  to  walk  a  block.  That  night  the 
occupants  of  the  hotel  were  not  disturbed  by  the 
Ramadan  gun,  nor  did  I  hear  the  trumpet  solo 
from  "  Rienzi." 


YIII 

GIBRALTAR  AND  MALAGA  _ 

Back  to  Spain.— England  in  Spain. — A  Protean  Rock. — 
The  Fortifications. —The  Monkeys  of  Gibraltar.— Con- 
victs and  Soldiers. — Across  the  Border  Line. — Climate 
and  Scenery  of  Malaga — Crime  and  Poverty. — Malaga 
Wine  and  Raisins. 

THE  small  steamer  which  makes  its  daily  trip 
from  Tangier  to  Gibraltar  (unless  the  levanter 
blows  too  rudely)  carries  three  classes  of  passengers, 
first  and  second  class  and  steerage.  The  steerage 
passengers  are  oxen,  and,  like  the  steerage  passen- 
gers on  most  steamers,  are  treated  like  cattle.  They 
are  brought  to  the  side  of  the  boat  in  a  flat  barge, 
whereupon  a  rope  is  thrown  around  their  horns,  and 
the  machine  lifts  them  high  into  the  air  and  drops 
them  into  the  hold  of  the  steamer.  What  Mr. 
Bergh  would  have  said  to  this  I  don't  know ;  but 
for  the  oxen  it  is  only  the  purgatory  which  leads 
to  the  frying-pan.  Upon  deck  not  a  few  of  the 
passengers  turned  pale  shortly  after  the  boat  had 
got  under  way  ;  but  there  was  no  reason  to  sup- 
pose that  this  was  due  to  fear  inspired  by  the  em- 


124  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

brasured  military  rock  which  soon  hove  into  sight. 
At  any  rate,  when  I  asked  the  German  Ambassador 
to  Morocco,  who  happened  to  be  on  board,  if  he 
thought  von  Moltke  could  take  that  fortress,  he 
replied  cynically  that  he  didn't  think  von  Moltke 
would  consider  it  worth  taking. 

Nevertheless,  to  one  approaching  it  gradually, 
this  petrified  Cerberus  of  the  Mediterranean  looks 
quite  sufficiently  formidable  and  forbidding,  even 
though  he  may  know  that  the  cannon  which  spit 
fire  from  its  numerous  mouths  are  not  of  the 
latest  Krupp  pattern,  and  that  therefore  Thackeray's 
remark  that  from  its  town  to  its  summit  "  have 
been  piled  the  most  ingenious  edifices  for  murder 
Christian  science  ever  adopted,"  is  no  longer  true. 
To  famous  travellers  this  rock  seems  to  have  pre- 
sented as  many  different  aspects  as  Hamlet's  cloud. 
According  to  Ford,  it  looks  "  like  a  molar  tooth,"  as 
seen  from  Gaucin.  De  Amicis,  as  he  sailed  past, 
found  it  looking  in  turn  like  an  immense  ladder,  a 
fantastic  castle,  a  monstrous  aerolite,  and  an  Egyp- 
tian pyramid.  Gautier  has  a  fine  page  in  which  he 
compares  it  to  a  sphinx  "with  its  head  turned 
toward  Africa,  which  it  seems  to  gaze  at  with  a 
dreamy  and  profound  absorption  ; "  and  according 
to  Thackeray  "It  is  the  very  image  of  an  enormous 
lion,  crouched  between  the  Atlantic,  and  the  Mediter- 
ranean, and  set  there  to  guard  the  passage  for  its 


GIBRALTAR   AND   MALAGA  125 

British  mistress."  To  prosaic  eyes  it  is  simply 
an  immense  rock,  1,396  feet  in  height,  sloping,  or 
rising  in  terraces,  on  one  side,  and  precipitous  on 
the  others  ;  in  reality  a  rocky  out-post  of  the  Sierra 
Nevada,  but  showing  no  direct  mountainous  connec- 
tion, being  wave-washed  on  all  sides  except  where 
it  is  connected  with  the  main  land  by  a  narrow  strip 
of  flat  land,  known  as  the  neutral  ground.  So 
isolated  and  mysterious  is  the  appearance  of  this 
rock,  that  one  might  almost  fancy  it  a  gigantic 
bowlder  carried  to  the  sea  by  some  glacier  of  pre- 
historic dimensions.  But,  whatever  its  precise  shape 
and  origin,  it  is  certainly  one  of  the  most  pictur- 
esque sights  in  Europe,  from  whatever  side  it  may 
be  viewed  ;  while  in  turn  its  summit  commands  an 
unsurpassed  view  of  ocean  and  mountain  scenery 
on  two  continents. 

The  peaceful  entrance  to  Gibraltar  is  not  so  diffi- 
cult as  painted  in  the  guide-books.  I  had  succeeded 
in  travelling  across  Spain  and  Morocco  without  a 
pass,  nor  was  I  asked  for  one  in  Gibraltar  ;  and 
since  the  indifference  of  states  to  passes  is  to  some 
extent  a  measure  of  their  civilization,  it  would  have 
been  strange  if  one  had  been  required  here  on 
British  soil.  That  it  was  British  soil  could  not 
remain  in  doubt  for  a  moment  as  we  drove  along  the 
macadamized  streets  to  the  hotel.  Not  only  were 
all  the  shop  signs  in  English  (often  with  "  London 


126  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

prices  "  added),  but  at  every  corner  were  groups  of 
soldiers  in  red  uniforms  and  white  Indian  hats,  and 
the  houses  themselves  were  of  English  pattern,  with- 
out patios  or  balconies,  these  Moorish  features  hav- 
ing been  dropped  when  the  houses  were  rebuilt 
after  their  destruction  during  the  four  years'  Span- 
ish siege,  a  little  over  a  century  ago.  Nevertheless, 
although  the  principal  buildings  are  English,  and 
the  streets  are  wider  and  straighter  than  in  Spanish 
cities  of  the  same  size,  as  a  whole  the  rock,  and  its 
climate,  and  the  town  at  its  base,  proclaim  that  they 
are  an  integral  part  of  Spain,  and  that  the  English 
are  usurpers.  The  majority  of  the  inhabitants  are 
Spanish,  differing  in  nowise  from  their  neighbors 
across  the  border  except  that  many  of  them  speak 
English.  The  guides  at  the  service  of  strangers  are 
Spanish,  and  Gibraltar  naturally  furnishes  inter- 
preters for  other  cities  of  southern  Spain.  The  in- 
terior streets  of  the  city  are  Spanish,  and  as  steep- 
graded  as  those  of  Toledo  or  Cordova,  or  more  so ; 
there  being  places  where  one  can  see  people  walking 
several  hundred  feet  almost  perpendicularly  over- 
head ;  and  sight-seeing  in  Gibraltar  is  therefore  not 
to  be  recommended  to  the  heart-diseased.  Span- 
ish is  the  market-place  with  its  tempting  piles  of 
cherries,  figs,  apricots  and  other  fruits  and  choice 
vegetables ;  but  English  wealth  and  tidiness  are 
shown  in  its  being  cleaner  than  the  market-places  in 


GIBKALTAR  AND  MALAGA  127 

Spain  proper,  and  the  fruit  of  better  quality  and 
more  carefully  selected,  thus  making  it  the  most  ap- 
petizing market  on  the  peninsula.  Spanish,  again, 
is  the  alameda,  or  public  garden,  with  its  luxuriant 
tropical  vegetation,  the  proverbial  snakes  amid 
flowers — here  as  big  as  boa-constrictors — looming 
up  in  every  corner,  and  including  the  famous  hun- 
dred-pound gun,  the  firing  of  which  costs  such  a 
fabulous  sum,  and  which  is  fired  only  "  once  a  year 
in  fear  and  trembling  lest  evil  should  befall  it." 
Even  the  amusements  of  the  British  soldiers  partake 
of  a  Spanish  character.  The  bull-ring  immediately 
across  the  line  is  well  frequented  by  them,  and 
though  they  have  their  own  English  athletic  grounds 
on  their  side  of  the  line,  on  the  day  after  my 
arrival  they  had  a  donkey  race  on  them,  which 
seems  certainly  more  Spanish  than  English,  al- 
though on  such  subtle  sporting  questions  I  do  not 
pretend  to  be  an  authority. 

Military  critics  have  found  much  fault  with  the 
antiquated  and  inoffensive  character  of  the  guns 
stationed  at  Gibraltar.  These  criticisms  seem  un- 
just, for  the  guns  are  so  carefully  guarded  that  I  do 
not  see  how  any  harm  could  possibly  befall  them. 
Visitors  are  not  allowed  to  come  near  them  except 
under  the  escort  of  a  sergeant,  and  after  obtaining 
a  pass  from  the  Military  Secretary  ;  and  the  guide, 
being  the  natural  enemy  of  the  tourist,  would  doubt- 


128  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

less  also  take  the  cannon's  part  should  the  tourist 
offer  it  any  violence.  The  sergeant  is  armed  with 
huge  keys  with  which  he  unlocks  each  gallery  and 
carefully  locks  it  again  when  you  are  in.  These 
galleries  were  excavated  by  convicts,  who  might  as 
well  have  been  left  in  them,  for  as  they  have  no 
windows  except  the  holes  through  which  the  can- 
nons poke  their  noses,  they  are  dark  and  damp 
enough  to  make  ideal  prisons.  We  could  not  go  to 
the  topmost  galleries  because  of  some  new  excava- 
tions and  possible  danger  from  explosions  ;  but  the 
views  from  some  of  the  higher  portholes  down  the 
sheer  precipices,  or  toward  the  Mediterranean  and 
Africa,  were  extremely  grand. 

I  was  also  shown  the  part  of  the  rock  where  the 
monkeys,  the  last  Mohicans  in  Europe,  do  congre- 
gate. They  were  not  in  sight,  and  the  guide  said 
that  often  they  were  not  visible  for  days  at  a  time 
except  in  the  early  morning.  One  time,  he  said,  he 
saw  them  just  above  his  head,  and  one  of  them  threw 
a  stone  at  him.  There  are  only  a  few  left,  and  the 
officer's  statement  that  there  were  some  young  ones 
was  subsequently  denied  by  the  guide.  Though 
protected  by  English  martial  law  these  simians 
would  no  doubt  be  only  too  glad  to  give  up  the 
proud  distinction  of  being  the  only  wild  monkeys  in 
Europe,  if  allowed  to  join  their  brethren  near  Tet- 
uan.  If  these  monkeys  had  reached  the  poetic  stage 


GIBRALTAR  AND   MALAGA  129 

of  evolution,  one  can  fancy  how  their  bards  would 
scorn  the  dime-novel  fiction  according  to  which 
they  came  over  from  Africa  in  a  submarine  cave 
which  is  still  shown  to  visitors  ;  and  their  chief  epic 
would  relate  the  much  stranger  true  story  of  how 
their  ancestors  failed  to  join  the  general  simian  emi- 
gration to  Africa  until  the  Mediterranean  current 
had  widened  the  strait  between  Europe  and  Africa 
so  much  that  they  could  no  longer  jump  across ; 
and  there,  in  the  twelfth  book,  we  should  find  them, 
gazing  across  to  the  promised  land,  tearing  their 
hair  in  despair,  and  howling  a  mournful  chorus 
about  European  exile. 

After  we  had  left  the  fortifications  we  went  to 
see  the  military  quarters,  passing  on  the  way  a 
group  of  convicts  who  were  hard  at  work  pulveriz- 
ing rocks.  At  three  o'clock,  the  guide  said,  they 
would  be  locked  up  in  a  dark  cell,  where  they  were 
kept  on  short  rations.  Punishment  varies,  accord- 
ing to  the  offence,  from  two  months  to  a  year.  At 
the  sergeant's  mess  we  obtained  some  good  ale,  at 
the  London  price,  and  had  a  look  at  the  billiard- 
room  and  library,  in  which  we  found  all  the  latest 
London  newspapers  and  periodicals.  With  such 
conveniences  the  soldiers  ought  to  lead  a  very  agree- 
able life  on  this  side  of  the  rock,  where  a  pleasant 
breeze  generally  blows,  and  which  is  not  visited  by 
the  deadly  fevers  that  ravage  the  town  below.  At  a 
9 


130  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

point  near  by  I  had  to  stop  half  an  hour,  fascinated 
by  the  curious  aspect  of  the  summit  of  the  rock. 
The  moist,  warm  air  rising  into  the  colder  regions, 
protected  by  the  rock,  would  at  the  summit  sudden- 
ly encounter  a  chilly  blast  which  instantly  converted 
it  into  clouds  which  slowly  drifted  away  to  the 
right ;  and  the  rock  thus  presented  the  spectacle  of 
a  vast  cloud-factory  driven  by  wind  power  and 
turning  out  its  white  fleeces  by  the  mile.  It 
seemed  odd  to  see  these  clouds  coming  into  exist- 
ence suddenly,  out  of  nothing  as  it  seemed,  in  defi- 
ance of  the  metaphysical  maxim  exnihilo  nihilfit. 

In  the  afternoon  I  had  an  opportunity  to  see  the 
rock  from  the  precipitous  side,  having  accepted  the 
invitation  of  a  resident  Englishman  to  drive  acrosa 
the  neutral  ground  to  San  Roque.  This  border 
town  is  famous  for  the  beauty  of  its  women,  but  as 
we  were  there  in  the  warm  part  of  the  day,  when 
the  streets  are  deserted,  we  did  not  see  any  of 
them,  and  the  excursion  would  not  have  been  worth 
mentioning  had  it  not  been  for  its  sequel,  which 
threw  an  interesting  sidelight  on  life  at  Gibraltar. 
Overcome,  probably,  by  the  heat,  our  horse  sudden- 
ly gave  out  and  could  not  be  persuaded  to  move 
faster  than  a  walk.  We  were  still  several  miles 
from  the  gate,  which,  I  was  informed,  would  be 
closed  in  less  than  half  an  hour,  after  which  Gibral- 
tar would  be  hermetically  sealed  till  morning,  and 


GIBRALTAR   AND   MALAGA  131 

as  there  is  no  hotel,  not  even  a  Spanish  venta,  on 
the  outside,  this  was  not  a  pleasant  prospect.  Per- 
sonally, my  entertainer  said,  he  would  have  no  trou- 
ble in  getting  in,  if  he  should  row  around  to  one  of 
the  other  gates  for  which  he  had  a  three  months' 
pass  ;  but  if  I  wished  to  get  in,  I  had  better  take 
the  cab  which  happened  to  be  passing,  and  offer  an 
extra  fee.  I  did  so,  and  arrived  just  in  time  to  see 
the  gate  shut  behind  me  ;  but  to  this  moment  I 
cannot  understand  why  the  English  should  keep  up 
such  a  cowardly  mediaeval  custom,  which  puts  Gib- 
raltar on  a  level  with  Tetuan. 

Had  I  failed  to  get  into  the  gate  I  would  have 
missed  the  French  steamer,  which  was  to  sail  in  a 
few  hours  for  Malaga,  and  there  was  to  be  no  other 
for  a  week,  while  the  inland  route  via  Honda  is 
fatiguing  and  very  expensive,  and  the  coast  route 
uninteresting.  The  French  steamer  was  large, 
clean,  and  comfortable,  and  arrived  in  the  Malaga 
harbor  several  hours  before  sunrise.  When  I  came 
on  deck,  about  seven  o'clock,  and  wanted  to  transfer 
my  valise  to  the  rowboat  intended  to  convey  pas- 
sengers on  shore,  a  custom-house  official  in  a  shabby, 
torn  uniform,  impeded  my  way.  He  was  evidently 
hungering  for  a  fee,  but  after  I  had  complained  to 
one  of  the  ship's  officers,  and  demanded  to  be  set 
free,  he  at  last  accompanied  me  to  the  custom  house, 
where  I  was  examined  as  if  I  had  been  accused  of 


132  SPAIN  AND  MOROCCO 

theft ;  thus  does  protection  make  slaves  of  us  all. 
However,  the  Spanish  authorities  have  reason  to 
examine  the  baggage  of  passengers  coming  from 
Gibraltar,  which  place,  so  far  as  Spain  is  concerned, 
is  nothing  but  a  great  smuggling  depot.  The  hotel 
to  which  I  was  driven,  though  considered  one  of  the 
best,  was  one  of  the  poorest  I  had  encountered  in 
Spain  ;  and  an  Englishman,  who  had  been  my  com- 
panion from  Gibraltar,  and  who  had  lived  for  years 
in  Malaga,  said  that  he  had  tried  them  all  and  found 
them  equally  unsatisfactory.  In  one,  where  he  had 
remained  several  months,  the  host  always  begged 
him,  as  a  favor,  to  pay  a  week  in  advance,  to  enable 
him  to  buy  provisions  ;  and  at  afonda,  near  Malaga, 
where  he  had  stopped  one  day  for  a  meal,  the  land- 
lady said  "  she  would  be  happy  to  gratify  his 
•wish  if  he  would  first  give  her  money  to  buy  the 
meat  and  vegetables."  As  Malaga  is  a  city  of 
120,000  souls,  and  supposed  to  be  much  frequented 
by  invalids  and  convalescents,  these  seemed  strange 
tales  ;  but  I  had  no  reason  for  disbelieving  them. 
The  food  at  our  hotel  was  very  poor  in  quality, 
and  although  Malaga  is  a  name  almost  synonymous 
with  wine,  our  table  wine  was  absolutely  the  most 
abominable  stuff  I  had  ever  tasted.  This,  however, 
was  less  strange  than  it  seemed,  for  the  Malaga  vine- 
yards produce  only  sweet,  medicinal  wines,  and  table 
wines  have  to  be  imported  or  manufactured. 


GIBRALTAR  AND   MALAGA  133 

In  several  other  respects  Malaga  seems  less  attrac- 
tive to  tourists  and  invalids  than  other  Spanish  cities. 
Most  of  the  streets  are  malodorous  and  unclean,  the 
authorities  seeming  to  rely  on  the  occasional  freshets 
to  remove  the  filth  and  rubbish ;  but  as  sometimes  a 
whole  year  passes  without  a  real  freshet,  the  conse- 
quences may  be  imagined.  The  cholera  has  often 
made  its  headquarters  in  Malaga,  but  in  the  future 
it  will  probably  escape  these  epidemics,  thanks  to 
the  new  aqueduct,  which,  according  to  Ford,  "  sup- 
plies Malaga  with  water,  probably  unsurpassed  in 
Europe  for  purity  and  abundance,"  and  which  fur- 
nishes strong  proof  in  support  of  the  view  that  con- 
tagious diseases  are  chiefly  conveyed  in  the  drinking 
water  ;  for  "  the  effect  of  this  water,  during  the  late 
cholera  epidemic,  has  been  remarkable — only  three 
cases  occurring  among  persons  whose  houses  were 
thus  supplied."  That  this  water  might  be  utilized 
in  cleaning  the  streets  and  a  certain  numerous  class 
of  the  inhabitants  does  not  seem  to  have  occurred 
to  anyone  as  yet.  The  "  great  unwashed  "  is  more 
liberally  represented  than  in  other  Spanish  cities  of 
equal  wealth,  owing  to  the  numerous  manufactories, 
which  supply  the  communistic  element  that  makes 
Malaga  a  rather  unsafe  place  to  live  in.  There  is  an 
average  of  four  stabbing  cases  a  week,  and  in  many 
parts  of  the  city  it  is  unsafe  for  foreigners  to  walk 
after  sunset.  Little  value  seems  to  be  set  on  a  hu- 


134  SPAIN   AND    MOROCCO 

man  life,  and  murderers,  if  caught,  get  off  with  a 
few  years'  imprisonment.  So  I  was  told,  and  the 
information  was  corroborated  by  the  unusually  large 
number  of  nocturnal  policemen,  whose  shrill  whistles, 
responding  to  one  another,  are  heard  at  brief  inter- 
vals throughout  the  night.  And  even  if  the  tourist 
escapes  being  assassinated  in  toto,  his  sleep  invari- 
ably is  foully  murdered.  Even  Cadiz  seems  a  quiet 
place  at  night  compared  with  Malaga.  Till  one 
o'clock  at  night  the  street  criers  keep  up  their  noise, 
to  begin  again  at  five  in  the  morning  ;  and  it  would 
seem  as  if  not  only  all  the  fish,  and  fruits,  and  vege- 
tables consumed  in  the  city,  but  all  the  groceries, 
and  clothing,  and  other  merchandise,  were  sold  by 
initerant  venders,  whose  cries,  reduplicated  between 
the  high  and  narrow  streets,  are  a  most  barbarous 
nuisance.  As  a  final  indictment  it  must  be  said  that, 
although  Malaga  was  founded  by  Phoenicians  and 
successively  held  by  Carthaginians,  Romans,  and 
Moors,  there  are  no  architectural  or  other  interest- 
ing historic  relics  to  be  studied  ;  and  even  the 
Catholic  cathedral  is  of  inferior  beauty,  the  best 
thing  in  it  being  the  varied  natural  colors  of  the 
marble  columns. 

To  offset  these  disadvantages,  Malaga  enjoys  a 
very  fine  site  above  its  excellent  harbor,  which 
yearly  gives  shelter  to  about  three  thousand  vessels, 
and  which  has  caused  it  to  be  second  in  importance 


GIBRALTAR   AND   MALAGA  135 

among  the  commercial  cities  of  Spain.  The  elegant 
villas  in  the  lovely  suburbs  attest  the  wealth  derived 
from  this  commerce,  and  nowhere  in  Spain  is  there 
a  greater  variety  and  luxuriance  of  semi-tropical  and 
tropical  floral  vegetation  than  that  which  adorns  the 
grounds  of  these  cottages,  and  of  the  English  ceme- 
tery, which  is  known  as  the  first  Protestant  grave- 
yard ever  permitted  in  Spain.  Then,  again,  Malaga 
boasts  an  inviting  winter  climate,  which  sometimes 
does  not  allow  the  thermometer  once  to  sink  below 
50°  during  the  whole  winter,  while  rain  falls  on  an 
average  on  less  than  thirty  days  in  the  year.  Dr. 
Willkomm  also  claims  that  Malaga  is  the  intellectual 
centre  of  Andalusia,  and  he  attributes  this  to  the 
large  number  of  Germans  in  the  city  ;  a  literary 
club  and  a  philharmonic  society  having  been 
founded  there  by  German  merchants  more  than 
forty  years  ago.  Yet  one  hears  more  English 
spoken  than  either  German  or  French,  and  I  was  so 
fortunate  as  to  meet  a  young  Englishman  whose 
national  taste  for  exercise  had  not  been  subdued  by 
the  warm  climate,  and  who  took  me  up  a  high  hill 
near  the  city.  A  young  Spaniard  accompanied  us 
as  far  as  the  tramway  went,  but  farther  nothing 
could  have  induced  him  to  go,  and  he  seemed  to 
regard  our  expedition  as  pure  insanity.  Nor  was 
he  quite  wrong,  for  the  sun  was  scorching,  and  there 
was  not  a  breath  of  air  even  on  the  top  of  the  hill. 


136  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

Generally,  on  going  up  a  mountain,  the  summit 
seems  nearer  than  it  is,  but  in  this  case  the  reverse 
was  true,  and  I  was  surprised  to  find  how  soon  we 
reached  the  top,  whence  the  view  fully  atoned  for 
our  torrid  climb.  Africa  was  dimly  visible  in  the 
distance,  picturesque  Malaga  at  our  feet,  and  the 
color  of  the  Mediterranean  so  clear  and  deep  that  it 
seemed  a  good  subject  for  a  Malaga  debating  so- 
ciety to  discuss  :  "  Which  is  bluest,  the  sky  or  the 
sea?"  On  the  way  back  to  the  city  we  passed 
hundreds  of  acres  formerly  constituting  the  famous 
Malaga  vineyards,  but  now  barren  fields.  The  phyl- 
loxera did  its  deadly  work  here,  in  the  interest  of 
beer  and  whiskey.  Yet  "  Malaga  wine  "  and  "Malaga 
raisins  "  continue  to  be  sold  the  world  over  in  large* 
quantities  than  ever ! 


IX 

GRANADA  AND  THE  ALHAMBRA 

From  Malaga  to  Granada. — An  Andalusian  Summer  Resort. 
—English  Trees  in  Spain.— The  Alhambra  To-day.— 
Vandals  and  Visitors. — The  Court  of  Lions.— Sunset  in 
the  Sierra  Nevada. — Andalusian  Funerals. — The  Truth 
Concerning  Beggars. — Gypsy  Caves. 

UNTIL  recently,  tourists  going  from  Malaga  to 
Granada  (Grah-na/&-dah,  if  you  please),  had  to  sub- 
mit to  the  tortures  of  a  very  rough  diligence  ride ; 
but  now  that  railway  connection  is  established,  the 
very  obstacles  which  conspired  to  the  traveller's  dis- 
comfort become  the  source  of  rare  enjoyment.  The 
railroad  passes  through  one  of  the  roughest  and 
most  savage  mountainous  regions  of  Spain,  and 
those  who  have  written  that  there  is  no  fine  natural 
scenery  in  Spain  cannot  have  seen  the  Hoyo  Canon 
on  this  route,  nor  the  Pyrenees  in  the  north,  nor 
Ronda,  nor  Granada,  nor  Montserrat.  The  exten- 
sive and  beautiful  orange,  lemon,  and  olive  groves 
along  this  road  are  also  well  worth  seeing.  At  a 
place  called  Alora  a  number  of  women  besieged 
our  train,  armed  with  branches  torn  from  lemon 


138  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

trees,  or  sticks  with  as  many  as  fifty  lemons  at- 
tached, which  they  sold  for  a  peseta  the  lot — twenty- 
five  for  ten  cents.  As  these  lemons  looked  unusu- 
ally large  aod  fine,  I  bought  a  few  to  quench  my 
thirst ;  but  was  disappointed  to  find  that  they  were 
not  the  limon  but  the  lima.  The  feminine  ending,  of 
course,  indicates  that  they  were  sweet ;  yet  I  must 
spoil  this  gallant  sentence  by  adding  that  they  were 
insipid  too,  and  I  should  have  much  preferred  a  sour 
lemon,  or  an  orange.  Of  the  olive  groves  we  passed 
the  largest  were  those  on  the  Duke  of  Wellington's 
estates,  which  yield  20,000  gallons  of  oil  a  year. 

Granada  was  reached  in  the  evening,  and  it  seemed 
eminently  fitting  that  the  first  sound  which  greeted 
the  passengers  as  the  train  stopped  should  be 
"  Washington  Irving."  Of  course  no  well-informed 
tourist  would  dream  of  remaining  in  the  lower 
town  when  he  can  have  the  choice  between  two 
good  hotels  on  the  hill,  near  the  Alhambra ;  and  if 
an  American,  he  will  naturally  prefer  the  Irving  to 
the  Siete  Suelos,  which  faces  it.  The  road  up  the 
hill  is  rather  steep,  but  by  no  means  so  precipitous 
as  one  would  imagine  from  the  descriptions  of 
some  tourists.  It  ascends  through  a  densely- 
wooded  grove  which  looks  like  a  natural  forest, 
and  is  deliciously  cool,  even  on  the  warmest  after- 
noons, as  the  trees  on  both  sides  overarch  the 
road  so  as  to  shut  out  the  sky  almost  completely, 


GRANADA  AND  THE  ALHAMBRA     139 

while  a  rapid  rivulet  to  the  left  assists  in  cooling 
the  air.  The  grove  consists  chiefly  of  English  elms, 
a  gift  of  the  Duke  of  Wellington  in  1812  ;  and  the 
tall,  grand,  stately  architecture  of  these  trees  con- 
trasts vividly  with  the  more  airy,  graceful  type  of 
Spanish  trees,  the  oranges,  olives,  and  palms  of 
Malaga.  Equally  great  is  the  contrast  between  the 
barbarous  noise  and  heat  of  Malaga,  and  the  quiet 
which  reigns  on  the  Alhambra  hill,  which  is  as  sooth- 
ing to  the  nerves  as  the  balmy  mountain  air  is  re- 
freshing to  the  lungs.  The  two  hotels,  however, 
might  have  been  much  more  pleasantly  located  a 
hundred  yards  farther  up  the  hill,  where  they  would 
have  commanded  a  fine  view  of  the  snowy  Sierra. 
Nor  is  the  Washington  Irving  as  American  as  one 
seems  to  have  a  right  to  expect.  The  proprietor  is 
the  only  person  in  the  house  who  speaks  English, 
and  in  its  arrangements  and  cuisine  the  hotel  is 
chiefly  Spanish.  I  succeeded  in  getting  a  room  fac- 
ing the  garden,  whence  a  fresh,  revivifying  and 
voluptuously  fragrant  air  was  wafted  in  ;  and  in  the 
morning  I  was  awakened  by  the  loud  cooing  of  two 
beautiful  doves  sitting  at  the  foot  of  my  bed.  They 
had  evidently  been  fed  and  tamed  by  a  preceding 
fair  occupant  of  the  room,  and  for  a  week  I  always 
found  them  on  the  table  or  the  window  whenever 
I  came  in. 

Granada,  since  the  opening  of  railway  communi- 


140  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

cation,  is  not  only  much  frequented  by  foreign  tour- 
ists, but  is  a  favorite  summer  resort  of  Andalusians, 
thanks  to  its  elevation  two  thousand  one  hundred 
and  ninety-five  feet  above  sea  level,  and  its  constant 
mountain  breezes.  It  has  two  fashionable  seasons, 
one  in  early  spring,  the  other  in  midsummer,  but  is 
not  less  attractive  at  other  times.  I  happened  to  be 
there  "  out  of  season,"  and  therefore  had  a  choice 
of  evils,  i.e,  guides.  The  first  day  on  visiting  the 
Alhambra  one  may  as  well  take  a  guide,  in  order  to 
get  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the  palace  and  its  many 
courts,  and  because  several  rooms  are  kept  locked 
and  can  only  be  seen  in  presence  of  an  attendant  or 
a  regular  guide.  This  precaution  has  been  found 
necessary  thanks  to  the  vandalism  of  name-writers 
and  mosaic  thieves.  The  Alhambra  is  not  nearly  as 
well  preserved  as  the  Alcazar  at  Seville,  and  consider- 
ing the  treatment  to  which  it  has  been  subjected  for 
four  centuries,  it  seems  a  wonder  that  anything 
should  be  left  of  it.  After  driving  out  the  Moors, 
the  Catholic  kings  altered  parts  of  it  to  suit  their 
convenience.  For  a  number  of  years  it  was  inhab- 
ited by  smugglers  and  other  vagabonds,  and  during 
the  French  occupation  it  was  even  used  as  a  stable 
for  horses.  A  gunpowder  explosion  destroyed  some 
of  the  ceilings,  and  earthquakes  did  not  pass  with- 
out effect.  But  the  climax  of  destructiveness  was 
attained  by  Charles  V.,  who  bodily  destroyed  a  part 


GRANADA  AND  THE  ALHAMBEA     141 

of  the  palace  (probably  the  women's  apartments) 
and  erected  a  stupid,  impertinent  modern  palace  in 
its  place.  This  palace  is  now  used  occasionally  for 
floral  festivals  and  exhibitions,  but  it  would  seem 
more  appropriate  if  it  were  used  as  a  mad-house. 
Yet  after  all  these  trials  and  disasters,  the  Alham- 
bra  remains  to  this  day  an  architectural  gem  which 
even  prosaic  tourists  cannot  see  without  deep  thrills 
of  emotion.  Moorish  patios  with  varied  mosaic 
work,  marble  columns,  fountains,  and  flowers,  may 
be  seen  in  other  cities  of  Spain,  but  here  are  whole 
suites  of  patios,  and  halls,  vying  with  each  other 
in  splendor,  and  all  on  a  regal  scale  of  magnificence 
and  lavish  expenditure  ;  while  the  situation  of  this 
palace,  with  the  snow  mountains  on  one  side,  the 
city  and  the  boundless  plain  on  the  other,  is  the 
most  romantic  and  picturesque  in  Spain,  if  not  in 
Europe.  No  wonder  the  Moors  of  Tangier  grow 
enthusiastic  when  they  sing  of  the  good  old  times 
in  Spain. 

I  have  read  a  dozen  descriptions  of  the  Alham- 
bra,  some  before  visiting  it,  and  some  afterward,  in 
order  to  find  out  if  perchance  some  nook  or  aspect 
had  escaped  description.  In  vain !  If  anyone 
should  attempt  a  description  without  reading  these 
previous  efforts,  he  would  inevitably  find  that  all  his 
best  things  had  been  said — perhaps  more  than  once, 
before  him.  Count  Schack  has  given  the  most 


142  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

elaborate  and  artistic  account  of  the  Alhambra,  but 
the  most  vivid  and  pictorial  is  Washington  Irving's, 
partly  owing  to  the  chaste  dignity  of  his  style  and 
the  avoidance  of  rhetorical  declamation.  Gautier, 
who,  like  Irving,  enjoyed  the  privilege  and  advan- 
tage of  living  in  the  Alhambra  itself  for  a  time,  is, 
as  always,  vivid  and  suggestive,  whereas  De  Amicis, 
who  is  usually  so  happy  in  his  travel  sketches,  be- 
comes in  this  case  almost  hysterical  in  his  superla- 
tive Italian  extravagance,  and  thus  misses  his  effect, 
like  a  jester  who  laughs  at  his  own  jokes.  And 
after  all,  a  dozen  good  photographs  give  one  an  in- 
finitely better  idea  of  the  splendors  and  peculiarities 
of  the  Alhambra,  of  its  beautiful  marble  columns, 
its  graceful  Saracenic  arches,  its  curious  religious 
inscriptions,  and  its  infinite  variety  of  mosaic  and 
arabesque  ornamentation,  than  the  pages  of  all  the 
writers  mentioned.  The  laws  of  literary  expression 
laid  down  in  Lessing's  "  Laocoon  "  are  always  veri- 
fied in  the  case  of  even  the  best  writers  if  they  at- 
tempt to  assume  the  painter's  or  architect's  func- 
tion. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  main  reasons  why  the  Alham- 
bra makes  such  a  deep  impression  on  everyone  is 
because  the  senses  and  the  vital  functions  are  so 
pleasantly  stimulated  at  the  same  time  that  the  aes- 
thetic faculty  is  gratified.  Here  is  no  chilly,  half- 
lighted  Gothic  cathedral,  with  a  tomb-like,  ascetic 


GRANADA  AND  THE  ALHAMBRA     143 

atmosphere,  but  a  series  of  brightly  colored  halls 
and  courts  into  which  the  deep  blue  Spanish  sky 
and  the  fragrance  of  flowers  and  orange  groves 
have  free  access.  Through  the  large  un glassed 
windows  blows  a  stiff  mountain  breeze  in  the  hot- 
test hours  of  the  day  ;  and  all  these  influences  com- 
bine to  make  the  imagination  more  receptive  than  it 
would  otherwise  be  ;  nor  must  the  moonlight  be 
forgotten,  which,  like  the  sky  and  the  perfumes, 
has  free  access,  and  entirely  transmutes  and  recolors 
the  scenes.  As  in  the  Alcazar  at  Seville,  the  mural 
arabesques  remind  one  of  the  polyphonic  intricacies 
of  modern  music  ;  and,  as  in  the  vegetal  ornaments 
shaped  by  nature,  the  closest  inspection  fails  to  re- 
veal an  imperfection,  the  recondite  corners  being 
worked  with  the  same  loving  care  and  finish  as  the 
most  conspicuous  portions.  Gautier  happily  com- 
pares these  ornamentations  to  "a  kind  of  tapestry 
worked  into  the  wall  itself."  Many  of  the  finest  de- 
tails are  in  the  ceilings  and  the  pendent  vaults  in 
the  shape  of  half  an  orange — made  up  of  a  jumble 
of  smaller  vaults  and  arches,  and  various  odd  and 
indescribable  configurations,  hanging  down  like 
stalactites,  and  richly  colored  blue  or  orange.  The 
trouble  with  these  is  that  one  cannot  see  them  well 
without  sacrificing  all  dignity  and  comfort  and  ly- 
ing down  flat  on  the  cold  marble  floor,  levelling  his 
opera-glass  at  the  sights  above. 


144  SPAIN  AND  MOROCCO 

These  ceilings,  being  inaccessible,  and  protected 
from  wind,  weather,  and  vandals,  are  remarkably 
well-preserved,  even  as  regards  their  colors.  But 
the  tiles  and  other  mural  ornaments  in  the  various 
patios  and  halls  are  often  a  mere  shadow  of  their 
former  selves,  except  where  Senor  Contreras,  who 
has  been  the  conservator  of  the  palace  for  more  than 
twenty  years,  has  endeavored  to  restore  the  original 
figures  and  colors.  In  a  vault  above  the  bath-rooms 
he  has  carried  out  these  restorations  so  minutely 
that  one  gets  an  excellent  idea  of  what  the  Alhambra 
must  have  been  in  its  original  splendor.  The  baths 
below,  where  the  dark-eyed  sultanas  used  to  disport 
themselves  on  the  warm  afternoons,  are  among  the 
parts  of  the  palace  that  have  only  been  accessible  to 
the  public  since  it  has  been  placed  under  government 
protection.  Their  spaciousness  and  dim,  mysterious 
light,  their  coolness,  and  the  large  marble  tubs, 
render  them  very  inviting.  Those  ancient  Moors 
understood  the  use  of  cold  water  much  better  than 
we  do.  Instead  of  taking  their  baths,  as  we  do,  in 
narrow,  gas-lit,  dingy  prison-cells,  barely  large 
enough  to  dress  in,  they  enjoyed  theirs  in  apart- 
ments and  amid  surroundings  that  made  them  an 
eagerly-sought  pleasure  instead  of  a  mere  hygienic 
dut}T.  If  they  brought  up  their  women  in  intellect- 
ual darkness,  they  allowed  them,  at  any  rate,  to 
enjoy  the  feeling  of  healthy  buoyancy  resulting  from 


GRANADA  AND  THE  ALHAMBRA     145 

the  free  use  of  fresh  water  and  fresh  air.  The  tower 
in  which  the  queen's  dressing-room,  the  Tocador  de 
la  Reina,  is  placed,  is  surely  the  loftiest  and  the  air- 
iest apartment  of  the  kind  in  the  world.  The  view 
from  this  tower  is  second  only  to  that  from  the 
watch  tower,  and  is  one  which  the  tourist  would 
like  to  linger  over  for  hours.  Unfortunately,  this  is 
one  of  the  parts  of  the  palace  which  one  can  see 
only  in  the  presence  of  a  guide  or  attendant.  And 
it  is  so  pleasant  to  have  a  guide  with  you  in  such  a 
place !  My  guide  entertained  me,  while  I  tried  to 
admire  and  study  this  view,  with  an  account  of 
how  he  learned  a  little  English;  what  book  he 
used  ;  when  he  began,  and  other  interesting  details. 
Then  he  asked  if  I  was  an  American.  He  knew  I 
was,  because  he  could  understand  me  so  easily. 
He  had  always  found  that  the  Americans  spoke 
more  distinctly  than  the  English.  And  so  on,  ad 
nauseam.  Thus  are  the  sins  of  former  wall- writers 
and  mosaic  thieves  visited  on  innocent  tourists  of 
to-day. 

The  gem  of  the  palace,  the  Court  of  Lions,  which 
was  the  last  part  of  the  Alhambra  to  be  completed, 
has  just  celebrated  its  five  -  hundredth  birthday. 
Oddly  enough  the  group  which  gives  the  name  to 
this,  the  most  famous  part  of  the  Alhambra,  is  the 
least  artistic  thing  in  the  whole  palace.  The  twelve 
lions  which  support  the  central  fountain  are  al- 
10 


146  SPAIN  AND  MOKOCCO 

most  as  grotesque  as  the  hideous  stone  monsters 
projecting  from  the  buttresses  of  Gothic  cathedrals, 
like  dragons  intended  to  frighten  away  the  devil. 
The  Koran's  injunction  forbidding  its  followers  to 
make  an  image  of  any  living  being,  evidently  sadly 
disabled  or  hampered  the  Moorish  sculptors  of  that 
period.  These  lions,  with  their  quadrangular  legs, 
heads  without  manes  in  relief,  the  front  part  of  the 
face  almost  as  thick  as  the  back,  the  nose  hardly 
distinguishable  from  the  cheeks,  and  with  water- 
pipes  which  look  like  cigarette-holders  in  their 
mouths,  represent  an  almost  pre-Assyrian  stage  of 
sculpture.  Indeed,  they  are  a  libel  on  a  noble 
animal,  and  no  wonder  the  lions  have  all  left  the 
neighboring  Morocco  and  retired  in  disgust  to  the 
interior  of  Africa. 

Only  once  a  year,  on  the  second  of  January,  the  an- 
niversary of  the  capture  of  the  Alhambra  by  the  Chris- 
tians, is  the  lion-fountain,  together  with  the  other 
water- works,  allowed  to  play.  Thousands  of  Anda- 
lusians  always  visit  the  Alhambra  on  this  day. 
The  young  peasant  girls  who  make  a  pilgrimage  to 
the  Alhambra  on  the  second  of  January  generally 
have  in  mind  a  superstitious  determination  to  shape 
their  conjugal  fate.  Any  girl  who  on  this  date  as- 
cends the  watch-tower,  or  Torre  de  la  Vela,  adjoin- 
ing the  palace,  and  strikes  the  bell,  is  sure  to  get  a 
husband  before  the  end  of  the  year ;  and  the  harder 


GRANADA  AND  THE  ALHAMBRA    147 

she  strikes,  the  better  will  be  the  husband.  From 
the  noise  made  on  this  day  it  has  been  inferred  that 
marriage  is  not  regarded  as  a  failure  by  the  unmar- 
ried women  of  Spain.  On  other  occasions  this  bell 
is  used  for  the  less  poetic  purpose  of  indicating  to 
the  farmers  of  the  vega  how  long  they  can  use  the 
irrigating  stream  on  their  fields. 

The  tower  itself  enjoys  the  distinction  of  com- 
manding one  of  the  finest  views  in  Europe,  especially 
during  the  half  hour  preceding  sunset  Below  lies 
the  Alhambra,  so  unpromising  in  its  exterior,  so 
fairy-like  in  its  interior,  and  beyond,  to  the  right,  are 
the  Spanish  Alps,  the  Sierra  Nevada,  powdered  with 
snow,  and  rising  twelve  thousand  feet  into  the  air. 
On  the  other  side  lies  the  city  of  Granada,  grouped 
about  its  giant  religious  guardian,  the  cathedral, 
and  along  the  hill  to  the  right  can  be  seen  the  habi- 
tations of  the  gypsies,  dug  into  the  mountain  side. 
Beyond  the  city,  almost  as  far  as  the  eye  can  reach, 
extends  the  fertile  green  plain,  studded  with  villages, 
gardens,  orchards,  and  farms.  Here  were  fought 
the  last  battles  between  the  Moors  and  Christians  in 
Spain,  and  to  the  historically-minded  nothing  could 
be  more  fascinating  than  sitting  here  and  reading 
the  story  of  Granada,  with  a  bird's-eye  view  of  the 
real  battle-grounds  before  him  in  place  of  a  map. 
But  when  the  sun  begins  to  sink  the  book  must  be 
shut,  for  then  the  aesthetic  sense  claims  a  monopoly 


148  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

of  the  attention.  The  snow  of  a  sudden  assumes  a 
delicate  rosy  tint,  like  the  Swiss  Alpgliihen,  while 
the  lower  mountain  chain  on  the  opposite  side,  be- 
hind which  the  sun  is  slowly  disappearing,  looks 
like  a  fantastic  coal-black  silhouette  contrasting 
vividly  with  the  green  sunset  sky.  For  a  quarter 
of  an  hour  this  scene  may  be  enjoyed,  when  all  at 
once  the  rosy  blush  on  the  Sierras  disappears,  leav- 
ing the  snow  more  deadly  pale  than  it  had  seemed 
before.  The  snow-fields  of  the  Sierra  are  not  meas- 
ured by  miles,  as  those  of  Alaska,  and  there  are 
many  black  patches  between  them.  But  these  very 
patches  have  a  poetic  suggestiveness,  for  from  them 
came  the  snow-water  which  feeds  the  Alhambra  gar- 
dens and  groves,  and  enables  the  Granadans  to  drink 
in  a  snow-breeze  perfumed  with  the  fragrance  of 
orange-blossoms.  Surely,  among  all  of  Ovid's  meta- 
morphoses, there  is  none  so  strange  and  charming 
as  this  transformation  of  Sierra  snows  into  fragrant, 
snowy  orange-blossoms  on  a  hill  which  but  for  the 
snow-water  would  be  a  barren  rock,  and  was  so  be- 
fore the  Moors  converted  it  into  a  paradise.  During 
the  week  that  I  remained  at  Granada,  I  never  once 
missed  this  sunset  view,  the  perennial  attractiveness 
of  which  was  attested  by  the  fact  that  even  the 
guardian  of  the  tower  and  his  wife  used  to  bring 
up  chairs  and  guests  to  this  tower-terrace,  and  sit 
admiring  it.  Surely  no  king  ever  had  such  a  re- 


GRANADA  AND  THE  ALHAMBRA    149 

ception-room  as  these  keepers  of  the  Torre  de  la 
Vela! 

It  is  not  the  altitude  alone  that  ensures  the  charm 
of  this  prospect,  but  the  peculiarity  of  the  point  of 
view.  This  is  realized  on  going  farther  up  the  hill 
to  the  Generalife,  the  view  from  which,  though  often 
described  in  glowing  terms,  is  a  decided  anti-climax 
after  the  watch-tower,  and  should  therefore  be  seen 
previously.  Nevertheless,  the  Generalife  is  well 
worth  visiting  on  account  of  its  terraced  gardens,  its 
perfect  system  of  irrigation,  its  magnificent  rows  of 
cypresses,  some  of  them  six  centuries  old,  and  the 
elaborately  carved  doors.  Still  farther  up  the  hill  is 
the  cemetery,  commanding  a  mountain  view  which 
seems  pathetically  wasted  on  a  graveyard.  Having 
been  told  that  funerals  are  generally  held  here  a  few 
hours  before  sunset,  I  went  up  one  afternoon,  and 
had  hardly  reached  the  entrance  to  the  enclosed 
cemetery  when  a  party  arrived,  consisting  of  a  man 
and  a  dozen  boys,  some  of  whom  carried  the  coffin, 
while  the  others  held  in  their  hands  lighted  candles, 
though  it  was  broad  daylight.  I  followed  the  party 
till  they  reached  a  spot  where  an  old  man  had  just 
dug  a  grave,  less  than  three  feet  deep.  The  coffin, 
in  which  lay  a  girl  of  about  six  years,  and  which 
had  been  open  so  far,  was  placed  on  the  ground,  the 
lid  put  on,  and  then  it  was  lowered  into  the  grave 
without  any  ceremony  whatever.  While  the  grave- 


150  SPAIN  AND  MOROCCO 

digger  shovelled  in  the  soil,  the  man  and  the  boys 
went  aside  a  few  yards,  where  they  quarrelled  loudly 
over  the  amount  the  boys  were  to  get.  Finally,  the 
matter  was  arranged,  the  man  gathered  the  candles 
from  the  boys,  and  they  dispersed. 

This  was  in  the  poorer  quarter  of  the  cemetery, 
where  there  were  no  monuments  or  gravestones  of  any 
sort.  In  another  part  there  were  a  number  of  chapel- 
like  tombs  for  families,  as  in  ordinary  cemeteries ; 
and'this  part  constitutes  one  of  the  three  large  patios, 
or  courts,  into  which  the  main  body  of  the  cemetery 
is  divided.  The  buildings,  or  rather  walls,  which 
frame  in  these  large  patios  are  used  as  burial  places, 
being  regularly  divided  into  numerous  pigeon-holes, 
into  which  the  coffins  are  inserted.  On  the  outside 
is  a  slab  with  the  name  of  the  family  to  which  that 
section  belongs,  and  in  front  of  this  is  often  a  glass 
covering,  the  intervening  space  being  filled  up  with 
evergreen  wreaths,  pictures  of  saints,  or  a  crucifix. 
The  patios  themselves  are  marked  with  special  divi- 
sions for  adults  and  for  children ;  e.g.,  "  Adultos, 
Seccion  IA,  Patio  3. "  After  examining  a  few  of  the 
numbered  streets  of  this  necropolis,  I  passed  through 
the  gate,  but  had  not  got  very  far  when  I  noticed 
another  funeral  procession  drawing  near.  This  time 
it  was  an  old  woman,  with  a  terribly  emaciated  face, 
who  lay  in  the  open  coffin.  About  a  dozen  men  and 
women  accompanied  the  bearers,  and  twice  as  many 


GRANADA  AND  THE  ALHAMBRA    151 

more  were  hurrying  along  behind,  some  of  the  women 
actually  running,  for  fear  of  being  too  late.  There 
was,  indeed,  very  little  delay  after  the  grave  was 
reached,  although  there  was  a  little  more  ceremony 
than  in  case  of  the  child.  The  mourners  all  stood 
around  the  open  grave  and  prayed  silently  while  the 
coffin  was  lowered,  and  one  young  woman  broke 
into  loud  sobs.  All  the  men  had  removed  their  hats 
except  one,  who  was  quietly  admonished  by  the 
whispered  word,  "  sombrero,"  to  follow  suit.  After- 
ward I  noticed  that  most  of  the  men  entered  a  venta 
near  the  cemetery,  to  drown  their  grief  in  aguardi- 
ente, after  the  fashion  of  Irishmen  and  Kussians. 

Augustus  Hare  relates  that  at  the  time  when  he 
visited  Spain,  twenty  years  ago,  whenever  an  un- 
coffined  funeral  took  place,  the  gypsies,  by  an  an- 
cient custom,  fell  upon  the  body  of  the  victim  and 
tearing  off  its  dress  and  decorations,  fought  and 
scrambled  for  it  among  themselves,  "leaving  the 
poor  corpse  to  be  tossed,  naked  and  desecrated,  into 
its  grave  among  the  docks  and  nettles."  This  may 
have  been  true  then  (although  Hare  did  not  see  it 
with  his  own  eyes),  but  it  is  not  true  to-day,  and  it  is 
therefore  absurd  for  the  latest  edition  of  Murray's 
guide  to  refer  to  this  passage  in  Hare,  and  in 
consequence  warn  travellers  not  to  follow  proces- 
sions within  the  gate  of  the  cemetery.  No  gypsies 
are  to  be  seen  there  in  the  day-time,  and  at  night  a 


152  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

special  sentry  is  stationed  at  the  entrance.  In  speak- 
ing of  this  cemetery  with  some  of  the  guests  at  the 
hotel,  one  of  them,  a  young  Englishman,  told  me  of 
an  amusing  adventure  he  had  there.  On  the  evening 
of  his  arrival  he  left  the  hotel  with  a  friend  to  go  and 
see  the  Alhambra  by  moonlight.  But  they  had  for- 
gotten to  enquire  their  way,  and  presently  they  ar- 
rived at  a  walled  entrance  which  they  supposed  led 
to  the  castle.  They  were  unpleasantly  surprised 
to  find  themselves  in  a  graveyard,  and  to  add  to 
their  consternation,  a  man  with  a  rifle  suddenly 
arose  before  them  and  barred  their  way.  All  the 
stories  of  Spanish  robbers  they  had  ever  heard  flitted 
across  their  memories,  but  the  sentinel  allowed  them 
to  depart  with  their  lives  and  purses  intact,  to  seek 
for  Moorish  castles  elsewhere.  But  if  the  gypsy 
custom  described  by  Hare  seems  to  have  been 
abolished,  there  still  survives  a  practice  which  makes 
this  cemetery  a  disagreeable  and  dangerous  place  to 
visit.  The  same  ground  is  used  over  and  over  again 
without  allowing  a  sufficient  number  of  years  to 
elapse  for  all  parts  of  the  skeletons  to  decompose, 
and  in  consequence  the  place  is  strewn  with  small 
human  bones.  And  over  this  ground  the  mourners 
walk  in  going  to  and  from  graves.  A  more  ingen- 
ious method  of  importing  the  germs  of  typhoid  fever, 
with  the  dust  clinging  to  shoes,  into  the  houses  of 
the  people,  cannot  be  conceived. 


GRANADA  AND  THE  ALHAMBRA    153 

The  city  of  Granada  itself  offers  little  to  interest 
those  who  have  seen  other  Spanish  cities.  It  has 
for  the  most  part  the  usual  crooked,  noisy  streets, 
so  narrow  that,  as  an  Italian  comedian  expressed 
himself  "  one  can  hardly  pass  through  after  a  good 
dinner."  Some  of  the  modern  streets  and  squares, 
however,  are  wide  and  airy,  with  good  sidewalks  and 
fountains  ;  but  they  are  less  interesting  than  the  few 
remaining  little  streets  which  have  preserved  their 
Moorish  characteristics,  including  pavements  adorned 
with  flowers  and  mosaic  work.  The  Alameda  is  one 
of  the  finest  promenades  in  Spain,  on  account  of  its 
glimpses  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  from  amid  a  tropical 
vegetation.  The  cathedral  is  also  worth  a  visit,  es- 
pecially on  account  of  the  capillo  real,  which  con- 
tains some  of  the  finest  sculptures  in  Spain. 

Walking  along  the  streets,  a  curious  sight  fre- 
quently meets  the  view.  Granada  being  a  summer 
resort,  the  natives  seem  to  wish  to  make  it  appear 
as  cool  as  possible,  so  they  make  their  ice-cream  on 
the  sidewalk,  placing  their  tin  buckets  in  rows,  and 
filling  them  with  snow.  This  snow  is  secured  in  a 
rather  primitive  way  by  gypsies  going  up  to  the 
Sierra  at  night  and  bringing  down  a  few  donkey- 
loads.  The  mystery  is  where  the  Granadans  get 
the  money  to  buy  ice  cream.  The  city  is  the  poor- 
est of  its  size  in  Spain,  and  the  population  has 
dwindled  down  to  65,000  from  the  half  a  million 


154  SPAIN  AND  MOROCCO 

which  it  once  contained.  Beggars  abound  and,  as 
elsewhere,  their  principal  victims  are  the  tourists. 
A  good  deal  of  nonsense  is  to  be  found  in  the  guide 
books  as  to  the  way  in  which  these  beggars  are 
treated  by  the  Spaniards  themselves  and  should  be 
treated  by  foreigners.  Spaniards,  we  are  told,  in 
refusing  a  beggar's  request  use  the  words,  "  Pardon 
me,  brother,  for  God's  sake."  The  fact  is  that  dur- 
ing all  the  time  I  was  in  Spain  I  never  heard  a  Span- 
iard say  this  or  anything  else  like  it  to  a  beggar. 
They  simply  ignore  them,  which  is  the  best  way,  or 
in  case  of  boys  who  come  into  stores,  tell  them  to 
"  get  out " — "  anda,  nino" —  a  phrase  which  I  did 
hear  more  than  once.  And  even  if  the  Spaniards 
themselves  did  use  such  polite  language  toward  the 
beggars,  there  is  no  reason  why  tourists  should  fol- 
low such  a  silly  example.  In  most  cases  pity  be- 
stowed on  Spanish  beggars  is  so  much  sympathy 
wasted.  History  shows  how  much  Spanish  soil  will 
yield  if  properly  cultivated.  The  soil  is  as  rich  as 
ever,  but  the  Spaniard  who  haunts  the  cities  is  too 
lazy  and  too  proud  to  work.  He  thinks  he  is  "  as 
good  as  any  one,"  and  that  labor  is  beneath  his  dig- 
nity. It  is  an  actual  fact  that  these  fellows  consider 
it  dishonorable  to  work  but  not  so  to  beg.  Rich 
Spaniards  may  sympathize  with  such  a  sentiment  if 
they  choose,  and  give  their  coppers,  but  foreigners 
had  better  keep  them  in  their  pocket,  unless  they 


GKANADA  AND   THE  ALIIAMBRA          155 

wish  to  encourage  such  views  regarding  the  compar- 
ative dignity  of  labor  and  begging.  The  efforts  that 
have  been  made  now  and  then  to  suppress  mendi- 
cancy have  failed  because  the  beggars  do  not  wish 
to  give  up  their  "profession."  In  Cadiz,  for  exam- 
ple, as  the  American  consul  informed  me,  hospitals 
have  been  built  where  all  beggars  who  present  them- 
selves are  well  taken  care  of.  But  the  majority  re- 
fuse to  stay  because  they  can  make  more  money  by 
begging  and  because  they  are  not  allowed  to  drink 
in  the  hospitals.  A  great  deal  too  much  has  been 
said,  too,  about  the  "  picturesqueness  "  and  "  grace  " 
and  "  dignity  "  of  these  beggars.  I  rarely  saw  any- 
thing picturesque  or  graceful  about  these  impudent, 
lazy  tramps,  with  their  dirty,  loathsome  rags,  vicious 
faces,  and  (generally  self-inflicted)  disgusting  mutila- 
tions. 

In  Granada  the  beggar  nuisance  is  aggravated  by 
the  presence  of  a  large  number  of  gypsies,  the  most 
persistent  and  irrepressible  of  all  mendicants — men, 
women,  and  children.  Nevertheless,  the  gypsy  quar- 
ter, the  Albaicin,  must  be  visited  by  every  tourist, 
at  the  risk  of  being  almost  crushed,  or  torn  to 
pieces,  by  these  beggars — not  only  because  their 
habitations  are  among  the  most  curious  things  in 
Spain,  but  because  the  hillside  where  they  live 
commands  one  of  the  finest  views  in  granada. 
When  Borrow  wrote  his  book  on  the  Gypsies  of 


156  SPAIN  AND  MOROCCO 

Spain  he  made  Seville  their  headquarters,  but  to- 
day I  believe  there  are  more  of  them  at  Granada, 
and  at  any  rate  the  Seville  gypsies  have  nothing  to 
show  quite  so  unique  as  the  habitations  of  their 
Granadan  friends — holes  dug  into  the  mountain 
side  and  excavated  into  the  rocks,  with  wooden 
doors  in  front.  They  are  real  caves,  some  of  them 
with  an  alcove  or  two  for  bedrooms,  or  for  pigs  or 
chickens.  The  ceiling  is  roughly  hewn,  and  the 
fireplace  consists  of  a  simple  hole  and  a  few  bricks. 
Whenever  a  tourist  approaches,  the  women  appear 
in  the  doors  and  invite  him  to  come  in  and  see 
their  homes,  in  hopes,  of  course,  of  receiving  a  gra- 
tuity for  the  show.  One  of  the  women  com- 
mended her  den  to  me  as  being  "  muy  fresca  y  lim- 
pia."  It  was  "  cool,"  no  doubt,  but  not  as  obviously 
"clean,"  although  these  caves,  being  frequently  on 
exhibition,  are  doubtless  much  more  tidy  than  those 
in  the  more  remote  quarters  of  gypsy  town,  which  I 
did  not  visit,  not  being  in  a  "  slumming "  mood. 
It  is  estimated  that  there  are  still  from  three  thou- 
sand to  four  thousand  gypsies  in  Granada,  but  I  be- 
lieve this  estimate  is  excessive.  A  few  days  later, 
in  travelling  by  diligence  toward  Lorca,  I  discovered 
where  many  of  the  gypsies  who  used  to  burrow  in 
the  Albaicin  have  gone  to.  But  of  this  in  the  next 
chapter. 


A  ROMANTIC  EPISODE 

A  Stage  Ride.— Off  the  Beaten  Track.— Third  Class  Best.— 
The  Mules  and  the  Priest. — A  Suspicious  Tavern. — 
Saved  by  a  Lie. —A  Spanish  Thunder-storm. — Fantastic 
Mud  Architecture. — Gypsy  Cave  Dwellings. — Garlic  and 
Raw  Ham. — Murcia. — Street  Music  and  Dancing. 

To  go  from  New  York  to  Boston  by  way  of  Buffalo 
would  be  a  nice  little  detour,  somewhat  similar  to 
that  which  a  tourist  has  to  make  who  wishes  to  go 
by  rail  from  Granada  east  to  Lorca  and  Murcia  en 
route  for  Barcelona.  By  a  direct  railway  the  distance 
would  be  under  200  miles,  but  at  present  it  is  535, 
as  one  has  to  go  northward  almost  as  far  as  Madrid 
before  striking  the  south-bound  train  for  Murcia. 
Two  other  routes  are  possible — by  diligence  via 
Baza,  or  from  Malaga  by  steamer,  uncertain  as  to 
time  and  cleanliness.  I  chose  the  diligence,  and 
though  it  involves  a  great  strain  on  one's  patience 
and  bones,  I  would  recommend  every  tourist  of  the 
stronger  sex  to  follow  my  example,  for  this  route 
will  take  him  through  one  of  the  weirdest  and  wildest 
parts  of  Spain — a  prehistoric  region  of  cave-dwell- 


158  SPAIN  AND  MOROCCO 

ers,  where  the  very  word  of  railway  seems  to  be  un- 
known and  undreamt  of. 

The  typical  Andalusian  stage  leaves  Granada 
daily  at  three  or  four  o'clock,  rattling  through  the 
narrow,  deserted  streets  with  a  noise  that  must 
wake  every  sleeper  within  half  a  mile.  The  driver 
has  no  lines  to  connect  him  with  the  six  mules,  but 
steers  them  right  or  left  with  the  whip,  and  with  the 
assistance  of  a  man  and  boy  who  alight  anywhere, 
on  the  leaders  or  on  the  stage,  like  squirrels,  and 
every  minute  or  two  are  off  again,  and  forward  be- 
laboring the  animals  with  blows  and  oaths.  One  of 
the  brutes  (I  mean  the  mules)  has  a  hideous  sore  on 
his  side,  which  is  irritated  by  the  hard  strap  at 
every  plunge  and  makes  him  jump  and  kick  like  one 
possessed.  It  would  be  easy  to  relieve  his  sufferings 
by  simply  hitching  him  on  the  other  side,  but  his 
tormentors  seem  to  have  no  idea  that  he  does  suffer, 
but  look  on  his  conduct  as  pure  deviltry  and  there- 
fore follow  up  every  kick  with  cruel  blows.  This 
comedy  seems  to  greatly  amuse  a  fellow  more  than 
half  drunk,  with  a  pistol  in  his  belt,  who  occupies 
the  other  end  of  my  seat  on  the  top  of  the  stage,  be- 
hind the  driver  ;  he  laughs  uproariously  after  every 
kick  and  blow.  Between  us  sits  a  sleek,  complacent 
priest,  who,  after  his  neighbor's  outbursts  of  hilarity, 
tries  to  explain  to  him  why  the  mule  kicks  so  fran- 
tically, by  pointing  at  the  raw  wound  ;  but  he  does 


A  ROMANTIC   EPISODE  159 

not  dream  of  remonstrating  with  the  men  for  their 
cruelty.  He  seems  to  think  that  that  is  none  of  his 
business. 

Had  it  not  been  for  this  harrowing  cruelty,  the 
ride  would  have  been  a  most  enjoyable  one,  for  the 
road  is  good,  and  on  level  ground,  and  down  hill  the 
mules  are  urged  to  go  prestissimo,  and  even  uphill 
only  andante,  never  adagio,  while  the  scenery  is 
magnificent,  disclosing  constantly  new  snow-fields  on 
the  Sierra  Nevada,  which  is  only  about  three  thou- 
sand feet  lower  than  the  Swiss  Alpine  summits, 
though  it  hardly  seems  so  high,  because  it  is  an  un- 
broken range,  with  no  conspicuously  isolated  peaks. 
After  some  hours'  ride  the  snowy  summits  disap- 
pear, and  the  near  scenery  becomes  so  remarkably 
odd  as  to  monopolize  the  attention.  Here,  during 
the  rainy  season,  the  swollen  rivers  have  washed  out 
the  yellow  soil  into  canons  and  formations  that 
strikingly  resemble  the  scenic  peculiarities  in  parts  of 
Arizona  and  Colorado.  The  sides  of  these  canons 
and  gorges  are  adorned  with  the  most  realistic  carv- 
ings, sculpture,  and  architectural  effects — complete 
houses,  with  doors  and  windows  and  picturesque 
castles.  No  fata  morgana  could  be  more  perfect, 
and  one  would  be  inclined  to  believe  in  a  human 
origin  of  these  carvings  were  they  not  on  too  large 
a  scale,  and  extending  along  miles  of  inaccessible 
precipices.  The  thought  occurs  that  these  odd  for- 


160  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

mations  may  have  suggested  to  the  Gypsies  their 
cave-dwellings,  and  as  if  to  confirm  this  suspicion 
we  soon  come  into  a  region  which  is  densely  covered 
with  the  mud-homes  of  the  Gitanas.  Many  of  these 
homes  are  mere  caves  dug  into  the  hillsides,  as  at 
Granada,  some  being  on  a  level  with  the  ground,  and 
some  farther  up  the  perpendicular  hillside,  where  it 
is  a  curious  sight  to  watch  the  women  moving  about 
in  their  glaringly  colored  half-dresses,  and  the  chil- 
dren-as  naked  as  in  an  African  kraal.  On  all  sides 
rise  mounds  and  hillocks  of  various  sizes,  occasion- 
ally as  large  as  castles,  shaped  like  a  mosque  or 
a  cone,  and  into  these,  too,  the  Gypsies  and  the 
poorest  of  the  Spaniards  have  dug  rooms,  sometimes 
in  two  stories,  and  with  a  chimney  on  the  top.  And 
there  is  much  to  be  said  for  this  practice  ;  for  in  a 
region  where  there  is  no  building  material  except 
this  mud,  why  not  utilize  it  just  as  nature,  in  an 
architectural  mood,  has  built  and  the  sun  burnt  it  ? 
What  could  be  cooler  in  summer  and  warmer  in 
winter  than  such  self-built  adobe  houses  ? 

At  Guadix  mules  and  stages  were  changed,  and 
as  the  new  stage  had  no  outside  or* 'third  class" 
seats,  the  agent  informed  me  that  I  must  pay  ten 
reals  extra  and  take  a  second-class  inside  seat.  For, 
strange  to  say,  the  outside  seats,  the  only  decent 
ones  on  any  stage,  for  which  in  Switzerland  and 
other  countries  travellers  gladly  pay  extra,  are  in 


A  ROMANTIC   EPISODE  161 

Spain  rated  third-class,  the  interior  being  second- 
class,  and  the  berlina,  a  sort  of  box  under  the  driver's 
seat,  first-class.  Now  the  inside  of  a  Spanish  coach 
is,  of  course,  intolerably  warm  and  stuffy,  and  from 
the  berlina  the  outlook  on  the  scenery  is  limited. 
Hence,  I  protested  that,  according  to  written  agree- 
ment, I  had  paid  for  an  outside  seat  all  the  way  to 
Baza.  "Very  well,"  the  agent  replied  ;  and  with  a 
half  angry,  half  sarcastic  air  he  arranged  the  baggage 
on  the  top  of  the  stage,  including  a  sack  of  oats,  in 
such  a  way  that  I  could  sit  on  it,  and  brought  a 
ladder  for  me  to  get  up.  I  found  the  improvised 
seat  more  comfortable  than  my  old  one,  and  took 
possession  of  it  complacently ;  but  I  could  not  but 
observe  that  the  by-standers,  including  the  beggars, 
looked  with  a  surprise  mingled  with  contempt  on 
the  eccentric  "Inglese,"  who,  although  well  dressed, 
rode  in  the  baggage  quarters  when  the  berlina  was 
empty.  To  bring  this  amusing  episode  to  a  climax, 
after  we  had  travelled  a  few  hours,  a  violent  rain- 
storm overtook  us,  and  the  driver,  in  order  to  keep 
the  baggage  covered,  had  to  ask  me  to  descend, 
and  the  interior  being  full,  gave  me  a  place  in  the 
berlina,  so  that  I  travelled  for  five  hours  "  first-class" 
on  a  "third-class"  ticket.  The  charges  for  the 
eighteen  hours'  ride  to  Baza  were  only  $2.50. 

Before  leaving  the  Washington  Irving  at  Granada 
I  had  asked  the  landlord  whether  I  could  get  any- 
11 


162  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

thing  to  eat  on  the  way,  and  he  replied  :  "  Nothing 
that  you  would  care  to  eat."  Perhaps  he  was  right, 
for  when  we  stopped  at  a  miserable  venta,  the  pas- 
sengers had  to  enter  the  dining-room  through  a 
stable  inhabited  by  mules,  half -naked  children,  and 
pigs.  Among  the  passengers  were  four  green  Anda- 
lusian  youths,  looking  like  clerks,  who  occupied  the 
interior,  and  who  seemed  to  have  much  fun  at  the 
expense  of  the  "  Inglese  "  on  top  of  the  stage,  and 
one  of  them  appears  to  have  understood  a  little  Ger- 
man, which  he  imagined  an  "  Inglese  "  must  under- 
stand ;  for  several  times  they  counted  three,  and 
shouted  in  unison  "Englimder."  When  they  came 
back  from  the  venta  they  carried  a  leathern  bag  filled 
with  wine  and  terminating  in  a  horny  mouth-piece. 
After  helping  themselves  they  handed  it  to  the 
driver,  but  did  not  pass  it  to  me,  though  the  guide- 
books say  that  Spaniards  in  a  public  vehicle  never 
eat  or  drink  anything  before  inviting  all  their  fellow 
passengers.  Perhaps  third-class  travellers  are  ex- 
cepted. 

At  Baza  I  had  to  spend  a  night  in  a  passable 
fonda,  and  next  day  I  was  shown  the  tartana  to 
which  I  was  to  confide  my  limbs  for  seventeen  con- 
secutive hours.  It  was  a  "  horrid  "  old  cart  without 
springs,  on  two  huge  wheels,  and  covered  over  with 
canvas  like  our  emigrant  wagons.  In  looking  at  it  I 
fancied  I  could  realize  the  feelings  with  which  a 


A    ROMANTIC   EPISODE  163 

culprit  looks  on  his  gallows.  It  was  probably  to 
give  me  time  to  recover  my  courage,  after  seeing  the 
tartana,  that  the  driver  did  not  start  till  late  in  the 
afternoon.  At  first  all  went  well,  but  toward  nine 
o'clock  a  most  violent  thunder-storm  broke  over  us. 
We  were  in  a  perfectly  level  region,  in  which  our 
wagon  and  the  mules'  ears  were  the  most  conspicu- 
ous objects,  and  every  few  minutes  the  lightning 
seemed  to  strike  within  a  few  hundred  yards  of 
us,  for  the  flash  was  instantaneously  followed  by  a 
terrific  thunder-clap.  After  the  first  clap  the  mules 
began  to  run  like  mad,  but  when  the  flash  and  crash 
came  so  near  us  they  stood  stark  still  after  every  ex- 
plosion, and  gazed  in  trembling  terror  about  them, 
while  the  driver  crossed  himself  over  and  over 
again.  Then  the  rain  began  to  come  down  in  such 
torrents  that  the  driver  concluded  to  put  up  at  a 
village  we  happened  to  be  passing  and  wait  for  the 
end  of  the  storm. 

He  drove  into  one  of  those  posadas,  half  inn,  half 
stable,  which  abound  in  rural  Spain,  unhitched  the 
mules  and  left  me  alone  to  study  my  environment. 
On  one  side  was  the  stable,  and  on  the  other,  with- 
out any  partition,  the  kitchen.  An  old  woman  fin- 
ished up  her  day's  work  by  washing  an  old  kettle, 
and  then  went  upstairs.  Four  men  were  lying 
asleep  on  the  ground  around  a  pillar,  simply 
wrapped  in  a  blanket,  and  two  other  men  were  sit- 


164  SPAIN   AND    MOROCCO 

ting  on  chairs  near  the  table,  engaged  in  loud  con- 
versation. I  took  a  seat  on  the  bench  by  the  table, 
and  presently  I  noticed  that  the  men  talked  in  a 
lower  tone  and  apparently  about  me,  to  judge  by 
their  glances.  One  of  them  got  up,  went  out,  and 
returned  after  ten  minutes  with  his  cloak  on ;  but 
instead  of  resuming  his  old  place  he  sat  down  on 
the  bench,  within  a  foot  of  me,  and  every  other 
moment  looked  at  me  with  a  semi-insulting,  defiant 
turn  of  the  head.  Being  unarmed,  and  remember- 
ing the  instructions  that  "  when  a  common  Spaniard 
approaches  you  with  his  hand  under  his  cloak,  be 
on  your  guard,"  I  deemed  politeness  the  better 
part  of  valor  and  opened  a  conversation  with  him, 
addressing  him  as  "senor"  and  "  caballero,"  and 
telling  him  I  was  travelling  to  see  the  sights  of  the 
country,  and  how  much  I  liked  it  and  the  people. 
After  a  while  he  asked  if  I  intended  to  travel  that 
night,  and  where  I  was  going.  My  suspicions  being 
aroused,  I  told  him  I  was  going  to  Baza  (whence  I 
had  just  come).  A  few  minutes  later  he  asked 
again,  "So  you  are  going  to  Baza  to-night?"  and 
when  I  had  replied  in  the  affirmative,  he  got  up, 
said  good  night  and  went  out  into  the  street. 
Whether  he  went  home  to  bed,  or  along  the  road  to 
Baza  to  waylay,  rob,  and  murder  me,  I  cannot  say  ; 
but  as  the  latter  supposition  is  more  romantic,  and 
costs  no  more,  let  ua  cling  to  that.  His  going  out 


A   ROMANTIC   EPISODE  165 

for  his  cloak  (and  dagger  ? ),  his  sitting  so  near  me, 
his  insolent  looks,  and  his  twice  repeated  question 
as  to  my  route  were  certainly  excuse  enough  for  my 
suspicions  and  my  lies. 

The  storm  presently  subsided,  the  driver  returned, 
and  we  resumed  our  journey  in  broad  moonlight. 
Everything  was  now  so  calm  and  quiet  that  the 
driver  soon  fell  asleep  and  slept  for  two  hours,  while 
the  mules  patiently  plodded  along  the  road.  Sud- 
denly, at  midnight,  they  halted  in  front  of  a  dilapi- 
dated solitary  hut.  They  knew  their  regular  stop- 
ping place,  and  after  seven  hours  of  steady  pulling 
along  a  muddy  road,  were  not  likely  to  pass  it  by, 
even  if  the  "  driver  "  was  asleep.  The  sudden  stop 
of  course,  awoke  him,  and  he  jumped  out  and  pound- 
ed on  the  door,  whence  presently  a  man  emerged 
with  a  fresh  team,  and  exchanged  places  with  him. 
The  new  driver  was  wide  awake,  and  we  sped  along 
merrily  until  at  five  o'clock  we  reached  Velez  Rubio, 
where  I  got  another  tartana  and  still  another  driver. 
This  man  was  quite  intelligent  and  talkative  and  told 
me  a  good  deal  about  politics,  the  poverty  of  Spain, 
and  the  foreign  capitalists  who  are  absorbing  what 
little  wealth  is  left.  At  noon  he  took  his  lunch,  com- 
posed of  ten  raw  tomatoes,  half  a  loaf  of  bread,  a 
piece  of  raw  ham,  and  a  large  bulb  of  garlic  consist- 
ing of  a  score  of  bulblets,  which  he  took  one  at  a 
time  to  flavor  his  portions.  It  is  doubtful  if  he  ex- 


166  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

pected  another  meal  that  day,  and  in  watching  him 
a  brilliant  theory  came  to  my  mind — perhaps  the 
poorer  classes  in  Spain  are  so  fond  of  garlic  for  the 
reason  that  they  have  so  little  to  eat ;  for,  as  it  takes 
several  days  to  digest  a  bulb  of  garlic,  they  always 
feel  as  if  they  had  something  in  their  stomach. 
The  driver's  boy,  the  only  fellow  passenger  I  had  all 
the  way  from  Baza  to  Lorca,  refused  the  offer  of 
garlic," but  took  a  piece  of  raw  ham  and  bread.  I 
had  previously  supposed  that  the  Germans  were 
the  only  extensive  eaters  of  raw  ham,  but  from  what 
I  saw  in  various  parts  of  Spain  I  concluded  that  the 
Spaniards  are  addicted  to  this  risky  practice  more 
even  than  the  Germans. 

After  we  had  traversed  a  horrible  road,  which  for 
miles  followed  a  river  bed,  and  passed  some  more 
gypsy  caves,  we  at  last  arrived  at  Lorca  just  in  time 
for  the  afternoon  train  to  Murcia.  But  though 
there  was  a  railway  here,  one  could  hardly  speak  of 
railway  accommodations,  for  the  arrangements  are 
not  a  bit  accommodating.  Here  are  two  cities,  one 
with  54,000  the  other  with  92,000  inhabitants,  forty 
miles  apart  and  connected  by  only  two  trains  a  day  ; 
and  what  is  worse,  only  the  morning  train  goes  as 
far  as  Murcia,  while  the  afternoon  train  stops  at  a 
station  five  miles  from  the  city,  whence  you  are 
transferred  by  tartanas.  There  were  several  car- 
loads of  people,  all  bound  for  Murcia,  yet  the  train 


A  ROMANTIC  EPISODE  167 

stopped  at  Alcantarilla  and  refused  to  budge  another 
inch  !  However,  the  indignation  over  this  asininity 
soon  gave  place  to  admiration  of  the  magnificent 
alleys  of  elm  trees  along  which  the  coach  passed,  the 
elaborate  and  ingenious  arrangements  for  irrigating, 
introduced  by  the  old  Moors,  and  the  consequently 
most  dazzling  flower  gardens,  Murcia  being  famed 
as  the  mart  whence  the  opulent  classes  of  Madrid 
get  their  flowers  during  the  winter  months  when  the 
capital  is  shivering  in  the  cold,  while  here,  only  two 
hundred  and  eighty-seven  miles  away,  the  tropical 
flora  of  Africa  luxuriate  on  European  soil.  Murcia 
has  a  fine  cathedral,  a  silk  factory,  and  an  interest- 
ing market-place,  besides  the  usual  alameda  and  an 
unusual  proportion  of  pretty  girls  of  the  darkest 
brunette  type. 

In  the  evening  I  came  across  an  interesting  per- 
formance in  the  street.  A  woman  and  a  man  were 
singing  a  duet,  accompanying  themselves  with  a 
guitar  and  a  mandolin,  making  a  peculiarly  pleas- 
ing combination,  infinitely  superior  to  the  perform- 
ances of  the  Italian  bards  who  accompany  themselves 
with  hand-organs  or  cheap  harps,  not  to  speak  of 
the  horrible  German  beer-bands  which  infest  our 
streets.  It  was  indeed  so  agreeable  that  I  followed 
the  couple  for  several  blocks.  But  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  students'  concert  in  Seville,  it  was  almost 
the  only  good  music  I  heard  in  Spain.  Madrid  and 


168  SPAIN   AND   MOKOCCO 

Barcelona  have  ambitious  operatic  performances  in 
winter,  and  the  Barcelonese  go  so  far  as  to  claim 
that  they  sing  and  understand  Wagner  better  than 
the  Beiiiners ;  but  as  the  opera-houses  were  closed 
while  I  was  there,  I  have  no  comments  to  offer  on 
this  boast.  In  a  cafe  chantant  which  I  visited  in 
Seville  I  heard,  instead  of  national  airs,  vulgar 
French  women  singing  a  French  version  of  "  Cham- 
pagne Charley  "  and  similar  vulgar  things  ;  no  one, 
it  is  true,  cared  for  these  songs,  whereas  a  rare  bit 
of  national  melody  in  the  programme  was  wildly 
applauded ;  but  fashion  of  course  must  have  her 
sway.  At  another  cafe  the  music  was  thoroughly 
Spanish,  with  guitar  accompaniment ;  but,  according 
to  the  usual  Spanish  custom,  there  were  a  dozen 
persons  on  the  stage  who  clapped  their  hands  so 
loudly,  to  mark  the  rhythm,  that  the  music  degen- 
erated into  a  mere  rhythmic  noise  accompanying 
the  dancing.  These  dances  interest  the  Spanish 
populace  much  more  than  any  kind  of  music,  and  I 
was  amused  occasionally  to  see  a  group  of  working 
men  looking  on  the  grotesque  amateur  dancing  of 
one  or  two  of  their  number  with  an  expression  of 
supreme  enjoyment,  and  clapping  their  hands  in 
unison  to  keep  time. 


XI 

MEDITERRANEAN  SPAIN 

Palm  Groves  and  Vineyards. —Where  "  French"  Wines  are 
Raised.— Alicante  and  Valencia  Compared  with  Andalu- 
sian  Cities, — Ludicrous  Tartanas.— Old  Roman  Ruins. — 
Barcelona. — Local  Pride  versus  Patriotism. — Montser- 
rat. — A  Magnificent  Mountain  View. 

ON  the  way  from  Murcia  to  Alicante  an  entirely 
new  sight  meets  the  tourist's  eyes  :  a  profusion  of 
Oriental  date-palms,  some  scattered,  others  united 
into  large  picturesque  groves.  Like  the  orange 
groves  of  Andalusia,  and  the  elm  grove  at  the  Al- 
hambra,  they  prove  that  Spain  is  a  paradise  where- 
ever  trees  are  grown.  The  town  of  Elche  is  sur- 
rounded by  a  perfect  forest  of  them,  and  those  who 
are  anxious  to  try  the  poetic  experiment  of  unter 
Palmen  wandeln  get  off  here  ;  but  to  merely  see  the 
groves  it  is  not  necessary  to  leave  the  train,  as  it 
passes  right  through  the  densest  part  of  the  forest, 
very  much  as  trains  pass  through  the  fir  and  pine 
forests  in  Oregon  and  Washington  ;  though  it  is 
not  likely  that  a  destructive  "  clearing  "  was  made 
at  Elche  to  secure  a  passage.  The  palms  are  of  all 


170  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

sizes  and  ages.  Some  (the  male  trees)  have  only 
leaves,  others  clusters  of  fruit,  and  beautiful  orange- 
colored  stalks.  Besides  the  fruit,  which  is  smaller 
and  less  richly  flavored  than  the  best  Oriental  dates, 
the  palms  yield  a  large  supply  of  leaves  for  the 
celebration  of  Palm  Sunday  in  neighboring  Span- 
ish cities,  and  from  these  two  sources  the  Elcheans 
derive  a  good  income,  though  they  also  cultivate 
oranges  and  other  semi-tropical  fruits.  At  Alicante 
the  promenade  along  the  wharves  is  lined  with  rows 
of  palm  trees,  but  owing  to  the  undesirable  neigh- 
borhood this  promenade  is  less  used  than  the  one  in 
the  interior  of  the  town.  Among  the  promenaders 
are  more  women  than  elsewhere,  since  the  propor- 
tion of  the  sexes  could  not  but  be  affected  by  the 
presence,  in  a  city  of  36,000  inhabitants,  of  6,000 
female  employees  in  the  government  cigar  factory. 
But  for  some  obscure  reason  the  women  of  Alicante 
are  inferior  in  beauty  to  those  of  Murcia  on  one 
side  and  of  Valencia  on  the  other.  The  new  part  of 
Alicante  has  regular,  wide  streets,  whence  one  can 
see  the  fine  castle  of  Santa  Barbara,  which  towers 
over  the  city.  The  view  from  the  top  presents  a 
striking  contrast  in  the  bleak,  dark  mountains  on 
one  side  and  the  bright  blue  Mediterranean  on  the 
other. 

Alicante  has  one  of   the   best   hotels  in   Spain, 
the  Bossio,  where  I  had   apartments  on   the  first 


MEDITERRANEAN   SPAIN  171 

floor,  consisting  of  a  large  parlor  and  two  alcoves, 
with  board,  for  $2  a  day.  The  table  d'hdte  pre- 
sented a  curious  sight,  the  long  table  being  lined 
on  both  sides  by  young  men  all  speaking  French, 
and  generally  on  one  topic — wine.  They  are  French 
commercial  travellers,  the  extent  of  whose  purchases 
may  be  estimated  from  the  fact  that  from  Alicante 
alone,  according  to  Ford,  "in  1886  wine  to  the 
value  of  one  and  one-quarter  million  sterling  was 
exported,  chiefly  to  France,  for  mixing  with  clarets.'* 
But  Alicante  is  only  one  of  the  stations  where  these 
wine  merchants  do  congregate.  The  whole  Medi- 
terranean coast,  from  Alicante  to  Barcelona,  is  one 
vast  vineyard,  interrupted  occasionally  by  grain 
fields,  vegetable  gardens,  and  gigantic  olive  and  fig 
orchards.  The  number  of  vines  is  simply  astound- 
ing; and  as  the  Spaniards  themselves  drink  very 
little,  most  of  this  wine  goes  to  Burgundy  and  Bor- 
deaux, whence  it  is  exported  as  French  wine  ;  so 
that  the  French  vintages  get  the  credit  for  all  that 
is  good  in  Spanish  wines,  while  the  Spanish  labels, 
for  want  of  enterprise  and  advertising  ingenuity,  re- 
main unknown.  Nothing  surprised  me  more  at  the 
Barcelona  exposition  than  the  vast  cones  and  pyra- 
mids of  wine  bottles,  each  bottle  representing  a 
different  brand,  and  many  of  them  no  doubt  as  well 
entitled  to  fame  as  some  renowned^  French  labels. 
If  wine-drinkers  were  wise  they  would  insist  on  get- 


172  SPAIN   AND   MOROCCO 

ting  the  pure  article  directly  from  Mediterranean 
Spain  instead  of  at  second  band  from  Paris,  mixed 
with  sour  claret  and  injurious  chemicals.  But  the 
average  wine  drinker  is  an  ignorant  fellow  who 
complacently  orders  his  chemical  "  St.  Julien  "  or 
"  Chateau  Margaux  "  at  the  grocer's,  and  turns  up 
his  nose  at  the  Spanish  and  California  wines,  which 
are  still  made  of  the  unfashionable  grape-juice. 

At  Malaga  the  tourist  receives  an  impression, 
which  is  strengthened  at  Alicante,  and  still  more  at 
Valencia  and  Barcelona,  that  although  from  a  ro- 
mantic and  aesthetic  point  of  view  Andalusia  is  the 
jewel  of  Spain,  in  the  bustle  of  activity  and  the  ani- 
mation and  prosperity  of  trade,  Mediterranean  Spain 
takes  the  lead.  Cordova,  Seville,  Cadiz,  Granada, 
in  fact  all  the  Andalusian  cities  excepting  Malaga, 
have  an  air  of  genteel  poverty,  and  remind  one  at 
every  turn  of  a  more  glorious  and  opulent  past, 
whereas  in  the  Mediterranean  cities  the  past  is  for- 
gotten in  the  active  life  of  to-day.  Valencia,  for  in- 
stance, is  of  about  the  same  size  as  Seville,  and  its 
streets,  clean  and  well-paved,  are  almost  equally  nar- 
row, and  on  warm  afternoons  similarly  covered  with 
awnings  stretched  across  ;  but  there  is  more  life  in 
these  streets  than  in  Seville,  and  the  people  seem  to 
live  more  in  the  present  tense  than  in  the  dreamy 
past.  Valencia  is  a  university  town  and  has  some 
good  art  collections.  At  the  market-place  one  can 


MEDITERRANEAN   SPAIN  173 

admire  the  curious  costumes  of  the  peasants,  and 
the  great  variety  of  fruits  and  sea  animals  used  for 
food  ;  and  the  Grao,  or  harbor,  a  mile  or  two  from 
the  centre  of  the  city,  may  be  visited  in  summer  to 
see  and  join  in  the  surf-bathing,  which  attracts  all 
classes  of  the  population.  Promenading  does  not 
appear  to  be  as  fashionable  as  formerly,  for  on  two 
evenings  I  found  the  beautiful  alameda  almost  de- 
serted. In  one  respect  Valencia  is  becoming  mod- 
ernized. The  wealthy  classes  in  driving  on  the  ala- 
meda are  beginning  to  use  regular  open  carriages, 
whereas  until  quite  recently  they  clung  to  the  ludi- 
crous tartanas,  similar  in  construction  to  the  one  in 
which  I  rode  from  Baza  to  Lorca,  though  of  course 
made  of  better  material.  For  the  general  public, 
however,  and  for  tourists,  the  tartana  remains  the 
only  conveyance  ;  and  if  you  wish  to  see  the  suburbs 
of  Valencia  you  have  to  crawl  into  one  of  these  two- 
wheeled  canvas-covered  vehicles  and  make  the  best 
of  your  opportunities  for  catching  a  glimpse  of  your 
surroundings  through  the  open  canvas  arch  by  which 
you  climbed  into  the  cart  from  behind.  The  tar- 
tanas  I  saw  in  no  other  parts  of  Spain,  and  in  Bar- 
celona they  had  disappeared. 

Between  Valencia  and  Barcelona  there  is,  of 
course,  frequent  communication  by  steamboat,  but 
the  land  trip  is  too  interesting,  scenically  and  his- 
torically, to  be  neglected  even  for  a  ride  on  the 


174  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

Mediterranean.  Here  is  to  be  seen  the  famous  Sa- 
guntum,  with  its  castle,  theatre,  and  site  of  the  Diana 
temple,  besides  Tortosa,  Tarragona,  and  other  old 
Roman  places,  so  that  one  might  fancy  himself  in 
Italy.  In  climate  and  scenery  the  region  is  en- 
chanting, sea-breezes  are  wafted  into  the  car-win- 
dows from  the  Mediterranean,  which  is  almost  al- 
ways in  sight,  while  on  the  ottier  side  is  a  mountain 
range,  the  intervening  region  being  adorned  with 
gardens  and  vineyards.  Here  and  there  are  huge 
piles  of  stones,  heaped  up  to  gain  arable  soil  and  to 
serve  as  a  warm  reflecting  surface  for  the  vines.  In 
reaching  Barcelona  we  seem  to  have  unsuspectingly 
left  Spain  and  arrived  in  France  ;  for  though  Span- 
ish still  is  the  only  language  heard,  the  streets,  which 
are  wide  and  clean,  and  the  architecture  are  French, 
as  are  the  hotels  and  cafes.  Great  is  the  difference 
between  Barcelona  and  Seville,  or  even  Valencia  ; 
and  though  a  tourist  may  find  considerable  local 
color  in  Barcelona  if  it  is  the  first  Spanish  city  he 
visits,  he  will  find  little  to  note  if  he  makes  it  his 
point  of  exit ;  unless  perchance  he  happens  to  be 
present  during  the  Carnival  or  one  of  the  special 
local  holidays. 

Barcelona  disputes  with  Madrid  the  claim  to  hav- 
ing the  largest  population  in  Spain  ;  yet  it  did  not 
prove  quite  large  enough  to  make  a  success  of  its 
international  exhibition  in  1888.  The  local  papers 


MEDITERRANEAN   SPAIN  175 

attributed  this  failure,  so  far  as  they  admitted  it,  to 
the  jealousy  of  the  other  Spanish  provinces  and 
cities,  especially  of  Madrid  ;  and  it  is  an  undeniable 
fact  that  in  a  Spaniard's  breast  the  pride  at  being  a 
Castilian  or  an  Andalusian  continues  to  be  a  more 
vivid  feeling  than  his  general  satisfaction  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  being  a  Spaniard.  Spanish  poverty, 
however,  has  perhaps  as  much  to  do  with  the  failure 
of  the  exposition  as  provincial  jealousy.  A  Sevillan 
would  hesitate  longer  in  deciding  to  make  a  trip  to 
Barcelona  than  a  New  Yorker  in  going  to  London 
or  San  Francisco. 

One  kind  of  exhibition  which  never  fails  to  attract 
a  crowd  in  Barcelona,  as  in  other  Spanish  cities,  is  a 
display  of  fireworks.  I  attended  one  of  these  exhi- 
bitions, and  could  not  but  wonder  at  the  patience  of 
these  people  in  looking  for  two  hours  at  a  pyrotech- 
nic show  which  would  be  voted  extremely  common- 
place and  monotonous  at  the  Crystal  Palace  in  Lon- 
don, or  at  Coney  Island  or  in  a  Japanese  city.  The 
favorite  seemed  to  be  an  illumination  of  a  high 
fountain  with  various  colored  lights  ;  but  oddly 
enough  these  Spaniards,  though  proverbially  fond 
of  bright  colors,  reserved  all  their  applause  for  the 
moments  when  the  white  light  was  turned  on  the 
fountain. 

Barcelona,  being  situated  on  the  shore  of  the 
Mediterranean  and  not  far  from  the  mountains,  has 


176  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

a  delightful  climate  in  winter,  and  is  not  so  exces- 
sively warm  in  summer  as  some  other  Spanish  cities. 
During  the  hottest  season  the  Barcelonese  have 
the  choice  of  a  number  of  refreshing  excursions,  of 
which  the  favorite  one  is  to  the  summit  of  Mont- 
serrat,  the  view  of  which  and  from  which  is  one  of 
the  grandest  in  Europe.  It  is  reached  by  rail  and 
coach,  and  when  first  descried  does  not  seem  any 
more  remarkable  than  hundreds  of  rugged  nameless 
mountain  masses  in  Switzerland,  except  that  its 
isolated  position  in  the  plain  attracts  attention  to 
it.  But  the  nearer  you  approach,  the  more  vividly 
is  its  majestic  grandeur  realized ;  and,  as  with  the 
portals  of  a  Gothic  cathedral,  its  detailed  sculptures 
and  formations  are  so  interesting  that  one  cannot 
form  a  just  estimate  of  it  before  reaching  the  mon- 
astery more  than  half  way  up  ;  or  rather  a  point  just 
below  and  opposite  the  chapel,  a  short  distance  from 
the  monastery.  From  this  point  the  upper  parts 
look  like  groups  of  gigantic  stalagmite  formed  in 
mid  air,  or,  to  use  a  more  homely  simile,  like  con- 
glomerates of  some  kind  of  tubers  changed  into 
stone,  standing  upright,  squeezed  together  like 
dates,  and  garnished  in  its  lower  parts  with  green 
vegetation,  wherever  the  Alpine  trees  and  shrubs 
can  possibly  gain  a  foothold.  These  occasional 
patches  of  green  distinguish  it  from  other  Spanish 
mountains,  which  are  usually  bleak  and  bare,  like 


MEDITERRANEAN   SPAIN  177 

deserts  turned  on  edge.  Mostly  the  rocks  are  abso- 
lutely perpendicular,  and  over-topping  all  the  rest 
are  three  cones,  coquetting  with  the  clouds. 

The  summit  may  be  reached  on  foot  or  by  mule", 
on  the  same  day,  but  it  is  better  to  spend  the 
night  in  the  monastery  and  get  up  at  five,  ascend 
the  mountain  and  return  in  time  for  the  nine  o'clock 
stage  back  to  the  railway  station.  By  applying  at 
the  office  a  monk  assigns  you  a  room  and  supplies 
the  linen,  for  which  you  may  pay  as  much  as  you 
please.  A  candle  may  be  bought  in  a  small  shop 
adjoining  and  a  tolerable  dinner  obtained  in  the 
restaurant,  where  you  may  also  drink  a  fine  Bene- 
dictine liqueur  prepared  by  the  gastronomic  monks 
themselves ;  but  the  wine,  though  seemingly  pure, 
has  a  most  ancient  and  boot-like  flavor,  probably 
from  the  pigskin  it  was  stored  in.  An  hour  and  a 
half's  climbing,  not  very  difficult  and  perfectly  safe, 
brings  you  to  the  top,  in  the  morning ;  and  were 
the  climb  ten  times  harder  and  as  perilous  as  the 
Matterhorn  the  scene  from  the  top  would  atone  for 
it.  All  of  Catalonia,  with  the  snow-covered  Pyrenees 
on  one  side  and  the  Mediterranean  on  the  other, 
lies  below,  and  from  the  highest  rocks,  protected 
by  iron  railings,  you  look  down  into  dizzy,  frightful 
abysses.  There  is  a  shanty  just  below  the  summit 
where  facilities  exist  for  obtaining  a  breakfast, 
which  shows  that  the  summit  is  much  visited  at 
12 


178  SPAIN  AND   MOROCCO 

this  early  hour  before  the  sun  has  climbed  too  high 
and  rendered  the  ascent  too  irksome.  There  are 
a  few  stray  sheep  and  lambs  on  the  summit  rocks, 
picking  up  the  bread  crumbs  dropped  by  those  who 
prefer  to  lunch  in  the  open  air.  There  are  more 
women  and  girls  than  men  among  the  pilgrims,  and 
most  of  them  seem  to  make  it  a  point  to  find  a  speci- 
men of  a  certain  kind  of  plant,  probably  from  some 
superstitious  motive.  A  shotgun  fired  by  one  of 
the  men  in  a  certain  direction  makes  as  much  noise 
as  several  cannon  in  the  plain,  prolonged  in  an  oft- 
repeated  echo,  which  seems  to  roll  away  like  thun- 
der to  the  distant  snow-peaks.  The  situation  forms 
a  superb  climax  and  finale  to  a  tour  of  Spain,  and 
the  air  is  too  exhilarating  to  allow  us  to  be  depressed 
by  the  melancholy  thought  that  in  a  few  hours  the 
train  will  carry  us  across  the  Spanish  boundary. 


INDEX 


AFRICAN  appearance  of  Spanish 
cities,  35 

Agriculture,  primitive,  5 

Alcazar,  52,  53 

Alcohol,  German,  imported  into 
Spain,  65 

Alhambra,  The,  140-148 

American  means  South  Ameri- 
can, 9 

Andalusia,  33 

BALLET  in  the  Cathedral  at  Se- 
ville, 56 

Barcelona,  174-176 

Basques,  5 

Baths  at  the  Alhambra,  144 

Baza,  162 

Beer  at  Bordeaux,  3 

Beggars,  at  Burgos,  7 ;  Castil- 
lejos,  33  ;  Tangier,  81 ;  truth 
about,  154 

Bell-ringing,  43 

Birds  sacred,  104 

Bone  exportation,  90 

Bordeaux,  2 

Bull-fighters,  worship  of,  34 

Bull-fights,  22-26 

Bull-ring,  19 

Bulls,  ignorant  animals,  24; 
grazing,  59 

Burgos,  6 

CACTUS  hedges,  60 
Cadiz,  67-74,  76 
Cafes  at  Madrid,  14 
Canary  birds,  wild,  101 
Cangrejos,  66 


Castillejos,  33 

Cathedral,  at  Burgos,  7 ;  Toledo, 
31 ;  Seville,  41 ;  Malaga,  134 

Cave  dwellings,  156,  160 

Cemetery  at  Granada,  149 

Cholera,  133 

Cities,  Andalusian,  and  Mediter- 
ranean, 172 

Climate,  of  Madrid,  12  ;  Seville, 
43;  Malaga,  135;  Granada, 
140;  Murcia,  167;  Barcelona, 
176 

Coffee,  how  made  at  Tetuan, 
119 

Convicts  at  Gibraltar,  129 

Cookery  (see  also  meals),  15,  17, 
71 

Cordova.  34-40 

Corpus  Christi  procession,  55 

Costume,  Moorish,  83 

Court  of  Lions,  145 

Cow,  raffled  for,  47 

Cruelty,  in  the  bull-ring,  23,  24 ; 
to  donkeys  in  Africa,  109 ;  to 
mules  in  Spain,  158 

DANCING,  at  a  festival,  22 ;  in 
the  Seville  Cathedral,  56,  57; 
working  men,  168 
Dancing  girls,  Moorish,  95 
De  Amicis,  on  Burgos,  8 ;  Cor- 
dovan Mosque,  38 ;    Guadal- 
quivir, 58 

Democratic  notions,  14 
Donkeys,  60,  78, 105, 108-110 
Don  Quixote,  6 

ENGLISH  influences  at  Madrid,  9 


180 


INDEX 


FESTIVAL,  of  San  Isidro,  21 ;  at 
Cordova,  39 ;  Seville,  55 

Fireworks,  175 

Flies  in  Tangier,  82 

Flowers  in  Morocco,  101,  106 

Fondak,  103 

Forests,  62 

French  wine  merchants,  171 

Funeral  processions,  at  Seville, 
46  ;  Granada,  149,  151 

GARLIC,  166 

Gautier,  on  Spanish  influences 
at  Bordeaux,  3 ;  natural  mum- 
mies, 4  ;  bull-fights,  25 ;  Cor- 
dova, 35  ;  a  marble  forest,  37  ; 
Gibraltar,  124;  Moorish  wall 
tapestry,  143 

Generalife,  149 

Gibraltar,  123-131 

Giralda,  The,  44 

Goafs-milk,  15 

Granada,  28,  138-157 

Guadalquivir,  The,  58 

Guides,  7,  79,  86,  126,  145 

Gypsies,  151,  153,  155,  160 

HALE,  E.  E.,  38,  63 
Ham,  raw,  166 
Hare,  A.,  35,  151 

Hill-tribes,  106 

Horses,  Andalusian,  20 ;  in  the 
bull-ring,  24  ;  in  Morocco,  107, 
110 

Hotels,  at  Madrid,  15 ;  charges 
at,  IS;  at  Tangier,  78;  Tet- 
uan,  111  ;  Malaga,  132 ;  Gran- 
ada, 139 ;  Alicante,  170 

INFIDEL  city,  91 
Inn,  a  suspicious,  163 

JEREZ,  62 

Jews,  at  Tangier,  78,  91,  92 ;  at 

Tetuan,  112-116 
Jewesses,   at    Tangier,   92 ;    at 

Tetuan,  115 

KADY,  89 

LAWYER'S  office  in  Tangier,  89 
Lepers  in  Tangier,  81 


Letters  registered,  49 
Levanter,  The,  67 
Lorca,  166 
Lottery  tickets,  47,  48 

MADRID,  9-26,  28 

Malaga,  131-136;  raisins  and 
wine,  136 

Market  place,  in  Tangier,  82 ;  in 
Gibraltar,  126 

Meals,  15,  16,  65,  165 

Money,  Moorish,  87 

Monkeys,  near  Tetuan,  111;  at 
Gibraltar,  128 

Montefiore,  Sir  Moses,  114 

Montserrat,  176-178 

Moorish,  language,  90  ;  civiliza- 
tion, 91 ;  costume,  83  ;  love 
of  children,  93;  cafe's,  94, 
119;  dancing  girls,  95;  agri- 
culture, 103 ;  lack  of  gallan- 
try, 105,  108;  holiday,  122; 
architecture,  51,52,  141,143; 
sculpture,  146  ;  baths,  144 

Moors,  76 

Morocco,  75-122 

Mosque,  at  Cordova,  37 ;  Tan- 
gier, 91 

Mountains,  Pyrenees,  5 ;  near 
Madrid,  12  ;  at  Tetuan,  111  ; 
Gibraltar,  124 ;  Granada,  137, 
147,  159 

Mud  architecture,  159 

Mules,  11,  20,  158,  163 

Murcia,  166 

Murillo,  70 

Music,  military,  6 ;  at  a  festival, 
22 ;  at  a  funeral,  47 ;  and  Moor- 
ish architecture,  52,  53,  143 ; 
in  Seville  Cathedral,  56 ;  Sal- 
amanca students,  56  ;  snake 
charmer's,  85  ;  in  a  Moorish 
cafe,  94 ;  in  the  street,  167  J 
opera  at  Barcelona,  168 

NEGRO  girl  at  Tangier,  93 
Negroes  in  Morocco,  120 
Newspapers,  14 
Night-life,  18 
Noisy  streets,  50,  75,  134 

OLEANDER  bushes,  101 


INDEX 


181 


Olive-oil,  63 
O'Shea,  22 

PASSPORT,  125 

Patios,  39,  51,  54 

Patriotism  and  local  pride,  175 

Peasants,  at  Burgos,  8,  28;  po- 
liteness of,  74 

Post-office,  in  Seville,  48,  49; 
in  Tangier,  89 

Prado,  The,  at  Madrid,  20 

Priesthood,  stronghold  of,  32 

Prison,  at  Tangier,  87 

Promenades  (see  Prado) 

Pyrenees,  5,  177 

RAILWAY  station,  a  rural,  32 
Railway  travel,  18 
Ramadan,  88,  104,  122 
Religious  indifference,    31,   32, 
42 ;  fanaticism  in  Morocco,  103 
Riffians,  121 

Roads  in  Morocco,  102,  107 
Rooms,  cooler  on  lower  story,  52 
Round  trip  of  Spain,  27 

SAGUNTUM,  174 

Salamanca  students,  56 

Salt-pyramids,  66 

San  Fernando,  67 

San  Roque,  130 

Scenery,  in  the  Pyrenees,  5 ;  at 
Madrid,  12,  13;  near  Seville, 
60 ;  near  Jerez,  62 ;  at  Tangier, 
78;  on  way  to  Tetuan,  105, 
110  ;  at  Gibraltar,  128 ;  Mala- 
ga, 136;  between  Malaga  and 
Granada,  137;  at  Granada, 
141, 147, 159;  Montserrat,  176^ 
178 

Schack,  Count,  141 

Sculpture,  Moorish,  146 

Sereno,  54 

Seville,  41-57 

Shade,  19,  60 

Sherry,  bodegas,  62;  adultera- 
tion of,  65 

Shops,  in  Seville,  44;  in  Tan- 
gier, 80  ;  Tetuan,  117 

Sierra  Nevada,  147,  159 

Smugglers,  72,  132 


Snake-charmer,  85 

Soldiers,  at  Burgos,  6 ;  return- 
ing home,  61 ;  Moroccan,  99, 
101,  107,  110,  116;  pay  of,  119 

Spaniards,  proud  of  Don  Quix- 
ote, 6;  democratic  notions, 
14 ;  temperate  habits,  17 ; 
turn  night  into  day,  18  ;  van- 
ity, 20 ;  good-natured  crowds, 
22 ;  cruelty  in  the  bull-ring, 
23 ;  family  affection,  61 ; 
plundering  officials,  72;  po- 
liteness, 73,  74 

Spanish  language  used  by  Jews 
in  Morocco,  113 

Stage,  Andalusian,  158,  160 

Stamps  sold  only  in  cigar  shops, 
48 

Steamers,  Cadiz  to  Tangier,  75 : 
Gibraltar  to  Malaga,  131 

Street  criers,  134 

Streets  of  Madrid,  11 ;  Toledo, 
29;  Cordova,  35;  Seville,  44  ; 
Tangier,  80-83,  100;  Tet- 
uan, 112;  Gibraltar,  J26; 
Malaga,  133;  Granada,  153; 
Valencia,  172 ;  Barcelona,  174 

TANGIER,  75-98,  122 

Tartanas,  152,  173 

Tax  on  food,  71 

Temperance,  17 

Tetuan,  107-120 

Thackeray,  109,  124 

Thunderstorm,  163 

Toledo,  28-32 

Tramways,  at  Madrid,   11 ;    at 

Seville,  45 
Tunnels,  musical,  5 

VALENCIA,  172 

WATCHMEN,  54 
Water-jugs,  40 
Water  supply,  at  Madrid,  11 ;  at 

Tetuan,  115;  at  Malaga,  133 
Wealth,  how  estimated,  110 
Whitewashing,  in  Spain,  69 ;  in 

Morocco,  117 
Wine,    free  on  the    table,  17; 

sherry,  62-65  ;  ordinary  Span- 


182 


INDEX 


ish  carelessly  made,  63;  at 
Malaga,  132,  136 ;  in  a  leath- 
ern bag,  162;  "French," 
raised  in  Spain,  171 
Women,  of  Bordeaux,  3 ;  of 
Madrid,  20,  28  ;  at  bull-fights, 
26;  of  Seville,  52,  55;  of 
Cadiz,  70;  of  Tangier,  83; 


Jewesses,  92 ;  negroes,  93  ; 
Moorish  dancing  girls,  96 ; 
treatment  of,  in  Morocco,  105, 
108 ;  Jewesses  at  Tetuan,  115  ; 
peasants,  116 ;  in  the  Alham- 
bra,  144 ;  how  to  get  a  hus- 
band, 146;  at  Murcia  and 
Alicante,  167,  170 


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